September 25th, 2018
25 Sept 2018 · page 837 of 1306
Nailed it.
Cast: Eliza Swift, Parsley, Vincent Knott
Comments (84)
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Really, how is Parsley not getting due credit in the cast list for each page?
Neither Harry nor Mal are going to like this one bit.
Nailed it allright!
But I think she hit her finger in the process XD
And Mal just seizes the opportunity to go, "Yup, you guessed it, that's correct, goodbye everyone"
Well she played the role of half a witch
More like the witch's magic feather.
The sheer realism in panel 5.
All joking aside, that really is an impressive board if details about what went on are being kept quiet (which must have been quite a job considering how many people witnessed/were affected by the Sins and the Outside Team dealing with them). From this new angle it looks like the missing people are Harry and Lei, with Lei being marked as having escaped during the riot.
Lei got away. Excellent.
Now, how much brilliant Elisa's conclusion is, I am more concerned about her words in the first panel.
Well, it seems (from Elisa's drawing) that Lei wasn't caught and jailed again.
I know, I'm really curious (and a little worried) about what happened to the old hangman.
Well there were riots at the prison...
Maybe, he escaped in riot.
TBH, I am more concerned about people who are about to be hanged. One can understand Elisa's words as that "the Sin incident" is the reason of future hangings. And I doubt if it is fair to hold people culpable for crimes they committed under free and powerful Deadlies' influence.
But maybe, she means just "they need a new hangman now as the need in them arises", and that guy Sharpe is only candidate for the gibbet.
See, the Sins' influence is what I was thinking of when I said worried. Because if people don't realize how much they were controlled it raises the potential for some really bad situations.
Yeah, from the ch. 5 I was guessing how much ignorant about magic/spirits/what spirits are able to do a "commoner" like Voss can be. Did he have any slightest notion of how dangerous messing with Deadlies is? (OK, in his case just plain common sense would be enough...)
Still, I suppose (non-wizard) people of Widdershins know at least something about magic, enough for anti-magic campaign in ch. 2, even if it was inspired by Fairbairn. (She tells crowd, "...they were using spirits to influence their audience's mood!") At other hand, the cries of "un-enchanted" audience in the Theatre: "It was a trick! That spirit..! What did I do?" imply that some of them realised what was happened.
There's that bounder MacCavity. They haven't hanged him yet. What do I pay my taxes for?
Yeah, I wondered about that, too. Not about taxes, actually, but whom they see as deserving hanging if McCavity (guility, besides theft, in a few attempts of murder) isn't.
I'm really curious what Sharpe has done.
It's much more believable than "The witch is a ratty middle-aged colorblind hobo who can't read."
And just when the souvenir shops of Widdershins have stocked up on little Harry-the-Widdershins-Witch figurines, she returns and the truth comes out.
>middle-aged
Mal's in his twenties - he just acquired the white streaks in his hair early.
To quote a dissertation on the subject by one Dr. Jones, "It's not the years, it's the mileage."
Given his past luck, his twenties might actually be half his expected lifespan, so middle-aged :P
That raises a good point - does being the Witch affect life expectancy? I don't think we have any information on the matter but it seems like the kind of status that might come with an extended lifespan or even limited immortality as a perk.
As it also paints a huge target on ones back I'm not that confident it EXTENDS ones lifeexpectancy. But lifeexpectancy and lifespan are not the same, so who knows?
For that matter; how does having magic affect life expectancy? The streets are amazingly clean in Widdershins and I imagine being able to work with spirits of Health, Surcease, and Fortitude is likely having an effect on the local population.
If you look back at the last witch when she summoned Lust, she looks like she's getting younger/more attractive during the summoning, so I doubt being a witch confers immortality.
We know for a fact that the benevolent malforms, such as the Purple Hippo of Happiness, like Mal and will do things to help or protect him. I wouldn't be surprised if they also kept him healthier, too.
Or the work hazards might mitigate against such life extending magic being any use at all.
Plus he's poor and this is urban Victorian England. Going by average life expectancies, he's already been dead for a few years now.
Well, we are in Harry's time, anyway. Now, if only we can get her back to this place. ...
How much is being "covered up" by the government, and how much do the government just not know about? I can't imaging Mal being one to just up and tell them who he is and what he did!
Since we only have Eliza's word on it right now, I think it might be more of the latter. Look at how many conspiracies today get blamed on the government for reasons that only make sense to wackjobs.
I think it's not so much that anything's being covered up as that the new witch is a grumpy sod who just wants to keep his head down and hope it blows over!
Mr Knott really hates cats doesn't he?
he likes them, he just isn't used to them and how much they put their entire tail right in your face at the soonest opportunity
Reminds me of when I first started dating my now-fiance. I didn't grow up with pets, so it took me a while to get used to his family cat just sort of jumping up and walking over my lap at various times.
I was basing my theory on Parsley's actions rather than Mr Knott's reactions. Cats know instinctively when someone doesn't like them or has a cat allergy, so they immediately jump on their lap out of petty malice.
True fact. Or possibly they are offended because we ignore them.
(I'm only mildly allergic and I like cats fine, just apparently not as much as everyone else does. Many cats seem to respond to this by twining around my legs or rubbing themselves against me/the jumper that I just took off...)
Cats seem to interpret brief or indirect glances as friendly and direct stares as aggressive. Humans who don't like cats frequently don't look at them much, or only look at them out of the corners of their eyes...
I've been living with cats my entire life and I still haven't gotten used to that.
Taking everybody's points here, while the Witch of Widdershins is chosen by arcane forces, and the post must be rooted in substance and function rather than style or form, I'm wondering what functions and duties the Witch has to be seen to perform publicly. Would Mal be able to palm off all the public stuff to a stand-in "official" Witch, and do his job unseen, in the background? It will be interesting to see...
Mal: Palmin' off the public stuff to a stand-in sounds good. puts feet up Who's volunteerin'?
Ben: No, it doesn't sound good at all. Even though a stand-in couldn't help but look more respectable...
Sid: Well, don't look at me, ha ha ha... extreme awkwardness
Vee: sweeps in in grand witch costume Did someone mention a stand-in Witch? throws down pattern of smoke bombs pose
Tim: enters in his Master Chung Soo costume radiates gravitas releases pattern of white doves from behind his back
Vee & Tim: commence stage magic battle
Ben: tries to catch the doves before they mess the place up
Sid: awkwardly tries to shoo away the dove that's landed on his head
>:=)>
See, I've always held the headcanon that he would have Ben be his public face in the academic world and Wolfe be his public face at functions and the like, since they are the people he trusts the most outside of Harry. Going to be interesting to see how this pans out.
I have noticed just now, on the board: "Spirits control humans? Is this even possible??" Well, I think the answer strongly depends on chosen meaning of the word "control". :/
...and the exact meaning of "spirit"...
Swing and a miss!
Well, considering how much Harry did while there it's almost more like the ball clipped the bat and spun off somewhere.
Eliza, I've only just met you and already I've got to say it: Don't ever change.
Off topic, but I'm seeing a lot of greens and browns in this chapter. I wonder what that means now that there's no deadly about to dictate the colour scheme.
I love all the little details like that, and all the foreshadowing/cameos!
so close and yet so far
One of the notes on the chalkboard says “Why? To what end?” To find the answer to that one, Eliza, you’d need to think like Luxuria, and I really don’t advise that...
So close... and yet so far. Not an unreasonable hypothesis on its face, though.
I'm telling you, that Clark Kent is some sort of supervillain. Why else would he run and hide whenever Superman shows up?
Can't wait for the day that Eliza meets Mal. Especially if she's still convinced Harry is the witch.
Also....DRAMATIC POSES (whatever is in that tea?)
Ah the overenthusiastic amateur sleuth. Showing why professionals have their place.
So close, Eliza. Not quite - but probably closer than anyone else.
Swing and a miss.
Paradoxically, her argument is not unreasonable. It's got some parts which are patent nonsense: "the government is hiding it" and "the witch must be missing", but she has nailed the key point, which is that Harriet Barber's absence is something which should be investigated.
Sadly, this means it'll be years IRL before Harry comes back.
I hope she doesn't run out of tobacco!
There is a new witch in Widdershins, and since she assumed her functions, she hasn't been seen around. Like she is not in Widdershins anymore.
Uh-uh.
BTW, panel 2 - Eliza is indeed very swift. Flowing up from a sitting position with a fluid determination.
HOLD IT!!!
Grossman's Law: "Complex problems have simple, easy to understand wrong answers." This is a famous misquote of H.L. Mencken: "There is always an easy solution to every human problem--neat, plausible, and wrong."
I see "Harriet Barber / Hunter".
Hhhhhmmmmmmmmmm so close, but no cigar
Also i cannot say enough how happy Eliza makes me
Since we're talking about Harry, maybe it should be "Close, but no pipe". ; )
True, true
How could i forget
I would like to see Harry saying "I ain't a witch" and O'Malley hearing that. :)
For all the trappings Eliza has as a conspiracy theorist, that's a pretty solid line of investigation and deduction.
Consider: all the witchy stuff happened on the other side of the door, which is effectively a black box in that no one else had any access to the events on that side. From the outside world's point of view, the sins started rampaging all over town, Harry and a large group went to the anchor, then everyone else in the group except for Harry and maybe some other guy started popping up around town dealing with the sins, then the sins stopped rampaging and Harry wasn't seen again.
Plus, Harry's bloodline is that of a witch, and she's well-known for heroics, including, specifically, having dealt with at least one Deadly--most of those incidents weren't witnessed by the general public, but someone must have recognized the giant peacock escaping from an exploding metal husk as Pride.
This information probably took a lot of research--depending on which parts are common knowledge, but the key fact that Harry and a former low-ranking municipal employee entered a magic door wasn't witnessed by anyone but the protagonists, so that's something that would have to be pieced together.
She's asking all the right questions and she's doing amazing with the information that's available.
That’s a really good point - Harry is the granddaughter of a famous hunter and well-known in her own right. Practically no one except Wolfe, Ben, and Nicola had ever heard of Mal until now.
Although, come to think of it, Eliza has actually met him, since Swift’s Apothecary had the Malform Busters in at least once. He probably just didn’t register at the time. [https://www.widdershinscomi...](https://www.widdershinscomic.com/wdshn/july-21st-2014/ "https://www.widdershinscomic.com/wdshn/july-21st-2014/")
Well, that so-relevant "And they didn't break a thing" rather makes me think that she met them more than once. :) (Though, maybe, she just heard about their work from others, or she just said that, without the implication "...unlike you".)
And if she really did see as the Malform Busters work, she could have remembered the weird guy who can see buggerups.
Edit: I had noticed just now, the door warning "No govern[ment officials?]" :)
She's got a shot at getting to the Olympics, I'd say. :)
They're both adorable, aren't they? ^_^
It would appear Verity's anime character delusion is spreading. God have mercy on us all.
The government you say? This could only be the work of *Blake and Bryony Thackerey, Secret Agents!*
If I repeat it often enough, it automatically becomes canon. That's how that works, right?
"We have found a witch! (A witch! a witch!) Burn her burn her!"
In all fairness though...it's much more reasonable than the "NASA faked the moon landings" theory. Oh, and I like Eliza, but one question, is that tea or coffee? Cause if that's tea I hate to think how hyper she would be after drinking some good java.
She's been SEEN, just not in town.
It's not like the whole thing turned her invisible! Bad enough that most malforms are, but unseen people? That's trouble!
Eliza is making assumptions, and I think we all know what happens when you ass-u-me something.
I cannot get enough of Swifty's body language. It's so wonderfully snappy and characteristic! I love it, Kate!
God, her reasoning is JUST what led me down an incorrect path towards a "bad end" the other day. Oh well.
Also, may I say that I ADORE the Hyouin Kyouma in her poses?!
I'd give that once over before you go to Scotland Yard asking for a job. :-P
ooo. so close.
I am oh so ever so very slightly disappointed that the word “noticeable”, spelled howver, is not on the conspiracy board. :-P