[0804] The Divine Comedy, Page 2
└ posted on Monday, 18 July 2016, by Novil
Our yearly Sandra and Woo and Gaia artwork contest has just started! The prize money this year is a whopping $1000! So don’t miss your chance to become one of the winners!
- Ganesha: God’s crossing all the lines again!
- The Devil: You know how he is.
- Ganesha: But, like always, people will blame you for their misery.
- The Devil: Well, I don’t have a multi-billion dollar P.R. agency!
- Ganesha: Why don’t you rain on his parade at least once and rescue the fair maiden?
- The Devil: Meh. What’s in it for me?
- Ganesha: Larisa’s soul!
- The Devil: Hmmm…
I have yet to see a downside to this!. We all need a little “fire” in our soul, even Lucifer. Larissa promises lots.
Ganesha is not very subtle about pushing The Devil in the direction that I’m sure God wanted him to go all along.
But can any of them predict how Larisa will react?
My Money is On Larissa!
Valuable asset… Wouldn’t he have her soul anyway? Or would she become martyr or something otherwise?
@ Trimutius:
Depends on your theology. In this world we seem to have a bureaucratic pantheon. Transferring title to a soul is probably more a matter of paperwork than conduct or belief.
Why do I get the feeling this is gonna go the rout of The Devil and Daniel Webster?
Also do all the species gods have devil counter parts?
athroughzdude wrote:
Not necessarily counter parts, in polytheism it would be just bunch of good gods, bunch of bad gods and bunch of neutral gods…
Love the expression of the Devil in the second panel. Not a common one in this strips, I think, but very… expressive!
Ganesha gives this strip 4 thumbs up!
I’m agnostic er… ambivalent about this so far. 😛
I can’t possibly be the only one who thinks that Larisa would really enjoy visiting Hell.
She would bring firewood and marshmallows. 😉
Has anyone considered the consequences of Larissa with access to hellfire and brimstone?
i’m wondering how larisa ‘selling’ her soul – not for herself, but to save someone else – will be dealt with in the end – good’ol selfishness vs selflessness wish debate/trope 🙂
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/SelflessWish
Not that it has to mean something in comic world where lenghty useless exposition can be ommited, but while Sandra required full name and mention of talking racoon to make sure everyone is thinking about same person, mere mention of Larisa name is enough. Girl is famous! (maybe)
Wait, I’m confused, Larissa still has a SOUL?
I would not put it out of the realm of the plausible operation of God, even the God of the Bible, to present Satan with a set of circumstances that will motivate him to an action that God desires. Here is something to think about. People die every day, People who are too young, or too kind, or too good, or with too much potential, to “deserve” to die. If one believes in a God who is all knowing, and all seeing, and that nothing happens that is not within his will (which is how the God of the Bible is described, he must allow these things to happen (signing off on Sandra’s death warrant for example). These things must happen by the allowance of what we can call his “permissive will.” He does not “cause” them to happen as such, but he chooses not to intervene to stop them. He set nature in motion, and in many cases, let’s the mechanics of the nature he designed take their course.
@ Thisguy:
Of course she does. Or did you forget her acts of genuine kindness to Landon (post-hookup), Luna, and probably others that I’m forgetting right now?
Everything’s clear to me, Sandra won’t die and Larisa will make the devil her b*tch and take over his job while he’s trying to get her soul.
Larissa gets around if she’s on Everyone’s watch list.
…The Devil is SEVERELY underestimating who he’s dealing with.
Let’s see from Wikipedia:
“Although he is known by many attributes, Ganesha’s elephant head makes him easy to identify.Ganesha is widely revered as the remover of obstacles, the patron of arts and sciences and the deva of intellect and wisdom. As the god of beginnings, he is honoured at the start of rituals and ceremonies. Ganesha is also invoked as patron of letters and learning during writing sessions.”
The remover of obstacles portion (and perhaps patron of arts and science depending on how you view Larisa and her use of fire) seem to fit Larisa but not much else so Larisa’s probably not aligned to him so how can he offer her soul to The Devil… SOme sort of deitic fetch quest where he has a soul aligned with him that another wants, and keep trading till they get Larisa’s soul?
The plot thickens…
That’s worth like 20 souls. At least!
Casn wrote:
Crestlinger wrote:
Larisa is on a first name basis when it comes to the supernatural IMO.
If she isn’t, she’s about to be!
God, Devil, Ganesha, Woo, Seeoahtlahmakaskay, and Larisa.
spCasn wrote:
Or maybe Larissa’s face in the speech bubble isn’t just for the readers and ganesha is somehow sending an image of Larissa straight into the devil’s mind.
The Devil may not have a good PR agency, but he has one hell of a legal department.
Let’s think about this, Larisa loves to burn things and would actually fit in nicely with that deal and sadly, her life is set not to be long. He would be getting an excellent new tenant and get back at God at the same time! It’s a Win win for him!
@ Djunk101:
I think he KNOWS exactly who he is dealing with, making the deal all the more delicious!
@ Van:
The next ghost rider?
JS wrote:
he is the ONLY one who has a legal department…
Buuut… I do not want him to have Larisa´s soul… I want it 😀
Ganesha is typically depicted with a broken off right tusk.
@ d.Artemis:
It’s a nice thought.
First it’s Larisa who “knows she will die young”, and makes the best of her time, manipulating fire and minds.
Then Sandra is “mentioned to be the victim of a divine assasination plot” …
and “The Devil” contemplates intervening … with Larisa’s soul as a reward.
But won’t she outsmart him ?
Both in the “messing with minds” department, AND in the combustion one ?
Will the devil now get BURNT by touching Larisa ?
Will that – accidentally – “cure” her ?
Lots of plots possible.
Enjoy it
I daresay Larisa would be much happier in hell anyway.
Of course there’s the remote (= highly likely) possibility of her burning down hell. If anyone can manage that, it would be her.
So, God is a gigantic asshole, and Satan is not necessarily a force of eternal malevolence, but rather he is stuck being God’s scapegoat. That might explain Satan’s interest in collecting souls by contract, actually. Stuck in a job as Warden of an eternal prison for evil souls, with an undeserved bad rep, he’s probably not happy in his work. Having a few nicer souls around might brighten up the place quite a bit.
Maybe Satan is also constructing a beachfront condo resort for these nicer souls he contractually converts to his side, and providing rewarding careers in Divine Corrections Services. Larisa could be put in charge of keeping the Hellfire and Brimstone hellfire-y and brimstone-y.
As much as I sympathize with the devil, the fact he wants to save a soul for the expense of another doesn’t really help.
I guess after enlightening humanity with sentience, wisdom, free will with a variety of bad and good, established a place of punishment for bad people and doesn’t judge humans for being human only to be met by unjust fear and hatred from them, I guess even he has his moral limit.
Still be nice to read a comic where lucifer is a morally nice guy.
Because that’s basically all the church system would be to God.
That’s not much motivation. Larissa’s soul is pretty much already ear-marked for Hell. Heck, she’s probably marked for an early executive internship.
JS wrote:
Pure poetry. I don’t know if you stole that from someone or not, but it is freaking excellent.
My full expectation:
Larisa saves the life of Sandra, giving her soul to Satan.
Larisa heads on down to hell.
We see a few uploads of the surprisingly orderly hell getting /TRASHED/ by Larisa.
We see her be sent back.
“Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able? Then He is not omnipotent.
Is He able, but not willing? Then He is malevolent.
Is He both willing and able? Then from whence comes evil?
Is He neither willing nor able? Then why call Him God?”
– Epicurius, 341BC
@ Anthony Emerick:
See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6mgPvYscUCk
DON’T, SHE MIGHT SET FIRE TO YO-oooooooooooooooh, i get it
No, you fool! You do not want her soul! She will probably remove all the air conditioners you installed in hell to deal with the unbearable heat and she will probably take over the place and rule as a tyrant for the next few million years, let someone else have her.
Speaking of crossing lines…
Sir and/or Madam wrote:
I believe the answer to the third line would be “human abuse of free will”.
Sciss wrote:
I know! Isn’t it delicious!?
I know sites need ads, but having them pop up, flashing flashing flashing, in front of the comic is super annoying.
So far no grave inconsistencies with Christian Theology. God allows evil because of mysterious ways – perhaps with rather more enthusiasm than Christians would like.
The other deities depicted appear to be subordinate, in no way his equals or capable of really challenging him. They might think they are sneakily subverting his intent, but he lets them think that.
Ganesh would like to prevent an evil that God cheerfully allows, which is in character. Satan asks “What is in it for me?”, which is also in character.
@ Mortar:
Usually I close the whole tab/window when that happens and then open the website I want again.
I figure maybe the advertisers will either get the point, or there is code that makes a certain ad less likely to reappear. Might be wishful thinking on my part though.
For some reason I see no ads on English SandW. I do see them on the German page.
JS wrote:
He also has all the best tunes
AndyMiller wrote:
And he makes work for idle Hans to do
@ Thisguy:
What you thought she was a Warp damned BLANK?
Wait, why does Ganesha have jurisdiction over Larisa’s soul to begin with?