![[0806] The Divine Comedy, Page 4](/comics/2016-07-25-0806-the-divine-comedy-page-4.png "[0806] The Divine Comedy, Page 4")
Our yearly Sandra and Woo and Gaia artwork contest has started! The prize money this year is a whopping $1000! So don’t miss your chance to become one of the winners!
This strip really feels like one you’d have found in Edmund Finney’s Quest to Find the Meaning of Life. It’s a shame that Dan Long has abandoned it. It was my favorite webcomic.
- Larisa: Oh my God, that’s horrible!! The angels really plan to kill Sandra?!
- The Devil: I’m afraid so.
- The Devil: And in exchange for my help to rescue Sandra, I’ll get your soul. But only in case of success.
- Larisa: That almost sounds like a reasonable deal…
- Larisa: Don’t get me wrong, but you’re not really known for your trustworthiness.
- The Devil: Maybe once, but not anymore. You see, I have a new P.R. strategy!
- Poster: The NEW Devil! – The force of evil you can trust! – Our budget price: 1 soul
- Larisa: I’m not sure if that’ll catch on.
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Well, sounds better than “Don’t be evil”.
Can definitely see the Edmund Finney in this one. God I miss that comic.
On the one hand, hard to see selling one’s soul at any price. On the other hand, Larisa might be rather comfortable in Hell…
@ Xezlec:
Larisa will probably start drawing up a list of suggestions for more creative ways to make flames.
Xezlec wrote:
Here’s a question. Does selling your soul to the Devil automatically mean you’re condemned to hell or does it just mean the Devil owns it? If, let’s say, you and the Devil were on good terms, maybe even friends, could that mean he could choose to do something else with your soul? Something you may even like?
@ Djunk101:
Such as, rather than condemning your soul to eternal torment, raising you as one of his soldiers to DO the torment?
Here is a suggestion, Larissa names her list of demands, including the option to save Sandra, smite the angels, and make sure it never happens again, curing her disease, longevity, and promotion after death to a high ranking position in Hell?
“The NEW Devil! – The force of evil you can trust! – Our budget price: 1 soul”
Depends. Has he ever made deals with Richard Nixon?
It’s a trap!
Uhm, it’s the devil, of COURSE it’s a trap.
But the escape clause is a nice add-on.
Still…there’s more going on here than meets the eye.
I think Teen Titans Go! played with this trope.
Raven made a deal with the devil to restore her teammates to life.
He carried out his end of the bargain, but when he tried to collect payment Raven pointed out that she doesn’t have a soul.
Whatever. I’m sure Larissa, Sandra, Woo, Lily, and the kits will all make out OK.
If anyone is likely to come out on the short end of the stick, it’ll be Thomas J — and he’ll vent his wrath on the Chance and Destiny dept. for making him look stupid.
Larisa: Do you play chess at all?
Satan: No. That’s my colleague with the scythe that you’re thinking of.
Larisa: Violin battle?
Satan: Been there, done that, got burned.
Larisa: Flame off?
Satan: You do know who you’re talking to, right?
Larisa: So you’ll let me team up with a friend?
Satan: Of course! I never turn down two souls for the price of one…
[…]
Satan: HOW?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!!??!?!
Larisa & Yuna: *high five*
>:=)>
Colonel Mayonnaise would be proud :_)
It also feels to me a bit like Bug Martini, one of the funniest strips I follow these days.
Novil wrote:
Did you really need to rub salt in the wound like that?
Well think about it. A whole life for the soul of someone who’s dying in ten or so years anyway? Besides, the soul is kinda like an appendix. You don’t really need it. Ask him what not having a soul entails.
@ Djunk101:
I’ve seen that kind of scenario usually playing out as the you cant die and live to serve the devil on earth or something to that effect. The other question is the do I die once you complete your side of the bargain or do you get my soul after my natural death?
@ Djunk101:
Alan Dean Foster wrote a short story about a street racer the Devil badly underestimates. Scratch barely pulls off the win, then assigns the racer to drive the bus that brings souls to Hell.
The young beautiful lady gets an offer from the devil?
The same lady who walks a geometric pattern across town to avoid violating distance orders?
A young intelligent girl who might well know and love more things about exothermic combustion than the devil?
Who is also good friends with another young rebel experimenting with heat exclusion air conditioning systems that might just work in Dante’s 10th level.
Not forgetting that Larissa has probably already considered what she would trade her soul for in renewed health, vigor and a permanent genetic cure currently only available from a deity.
The infernal regions might gain a new female master of eternal punishment! 🙂
Is it weird that I found Larisa’s “Oh my God” ironic, considering what she was just told?
The Name’s Hiram McDaniels: A literal five headed dragon! Who Cares! Vote for me!
Why does Larissa believe Sandra is doomed?
We (the readers) know it’s so, but the Devil might be spoofing her.
Larissa ought to know better than to take his word.
The Devil is at least as untrustworthy as Putin.
Suppose Sandra isn’t scheduled to die.
Larissa signs the contract.
The Devil does nothing.
Sandra is still alive Sunday.
The Devil collects.
…I like this Devil. I mean, more than I like most devils. He’s affable, mildly dorky, fairly reasonable, has high enough standards to both treat God’s antics with the WTF-ness they deserve AND have higher aspirations… Hell, at this rate, him owning someone’s soul might actually be a fairly nice deal. (I’m not entirely sure if I’m okay with that “force of evil” stuff, though.)
@ Greenwood Goat:
That is fantastic. Your hypothetical scenarios are showing clear improvement.
@ Djunk101:
From a more historical/orthodox viewpoint than others have given thus far: it would essentially mean you’ve condemned yourself to Hell. You’ve become part of the Devil’s cadre, and the Devil and his team are Hell-bound. Contrary to the popular depiction (these days) of Hell as a place where you get tormented by demons, the viewpoint that is actually expressed (in Revelations, at least) is that the demons are going into torment alongside the unrighteous. Heck, the Demons may be worse off in Hell than most unrighteous humans (if one ascribes to a proportional-torment view of the condemnation).
@Tomana
True, perhaps, but Larissa is Russian and the Orthodox denominations don’t include Revelations in their Bible. If she doesn’t believe it, can it happen?
Eh, it looks like he wants to make Evil Great Again.
I just thought this might become handy in the near future…
For 👿 use
:evil:For 😈 use
:twisted:“Running with the devil
Yes I am
Yeah
Woo
Woo
You know I, I found the simple life, weren’t so simple, no
When I jumped out on that road
Got no love, no love you’d call real
Got nobody waiting at home
Runnin’ with the devil
Runnin’ with the devil
Runnin’ with the devil
Runnin’ with the devil
[Repeat and fade]”
Selfless wish.
that is basically the campaing of the dicatorial party in Mexico. PRI, The force of evil you can trust.
Yea I’d definitely ask exactly what selling one’s soul means. Not to mention try to get more than one person’s word for it. Not to mention that person is the Devil. Nothing saying he isn’t slightly nudging the truth, or completely lying (though we know that won’t entirely be the case).
Hrm.. well trustworthyness, the devils one rule is he never lies, so everything hes said is the truth, his version of the truth maybe but still the truth, I’d be checking the small print before i signed, because after all the devil is in the details 8).
New P.R? Epic Fail ! Better this:
Do you like fire? How about this one? Or this? This is bigger.
🙂
On the other hand the Devil has a reputation to stick to his deals. The untrustworthiness usually is him adding to the fine print or use open wiggleroom to interpret the deals in unfavourable ways. so a straightforward deal Sandra survives or I won’t get your soul would in general be ok. One might consider adding that Sandra not only survives but is reasonably unharmed and not to much collaterals left and right are caused but aside from that the deal seems to be straight forward.
On the other hand there is the question whether a soul is a fair trade for a life (after all Sandra’s soul would be undamaged by her death). But that turly is for Larissa to decide.
Hmm, Larissa could ask Devil that she has to see that Sandra not only survives this ordeal but no divine punishment will harm her till her death.
And since she has to see it, Devil will also have to keep Larissa alive and reasonably healthy (since her disease will make her blind eventualy) till Sandra dies – thus God has helped Larissa without need to go trough angels bureaucracy 🙂
Why wouldn’t she trust the devil to stick too his part of the agreement?
The devil’s word is gold, when you sign a contract or make any agreement with the devil, he will stand by it to the letter. The catch is, he will abuse any loophole that allows him to cheat his way into getting what he wants.
God’s the untrustworthy liar, promising paradise in exchange for giving up all desires other than to praise him, and then placing infinite temptation around followers so they’re effectively looking through a tunnel made off sin.
@ kitenkaiba:
the classical terms in Christian legends and superstition (fun fact: there es nothing about selling souls to the devil in the bible itself!) are that the sold soul is going to hell to stay there to be tormented for all eternity. The chance to become a higher demon that does the torturing or the capturing of new souls while having a relatively comfortable existence himself is AFAIK a concept of 20th century fantasy literature, the classical tales were designed to make people try hard to be good and not to seek cheap solutions by being evil after all. The time of delivery is always after death in the classic tales, you cannot live without your soul because your soul is essentially you minus the body. A deal with the devil may be payed up after natural death, but it may also contain the right for the devil to kill you and claim the soul after a certain period of time or after certain conditions are met. In most tales, there is also some tricky task as an escape clause, because hardly anyone would sell his soul if he knew that eternal damnation is the inevitable consequence.
That said, it would still be a pretty lousy deal to accept being tormented in hell for your whole afterlife just to prolong the earthly life of a friend for a few decades, at least if you believe you have any chance not to end up in hell anyway (And of course assuming that you believe in an eternal afterlife, but I guess meeting the devil in the flesh and getting such an offer might make an atheist change his mind.)
@ 1oldbear:
I was struck by the statement that the Orthodox churches don’t have Revelation in their Bible. So I looked it up. Like a lot of things, it’s kinda complicated.
They do recognize Revelation, although some doubt remains. They do not include it in the lectionary; when Biblical passages are read in church, it is never from Revelation. They feel that, unlike Protestants, lay people cannot safely interpret the symbolism in the book, and they get very excited and sometimes make terrible mistakes. But I don’t think they remove the book from their Bibles.
@ CaptXpendable:
suggestions? i can totally see her taking over the flaming pit! apparently satan never heard the old saying: HEAVEN DOESN´T WANT HER AND HELL IS AFRAID SHE´LL TAKE OVER – larissa was the inspiration for that one!
@ Peya Luna:
A certain Last Czarnian who works as a space mercenary would like to have a word with you.
Anyone forgetting that Sandra sold her soul? The devil(depending on your definition of what would if you sold your soul) could have complete control over Sandra or OWN her meaning Thomas.J. God couldn’t do jack all to her.
luck out wrote:
I am not sure she drank that water…
http://www.jagodibuja.com/2016/01/living-with-hipstergirl-and-gamergirl-207-english/207english/
“Force of evil you can trust”
This sounds like a political campaign.
@ Xezlec:
She’ll take over within the week.
“Under new management.”
Come on Larrisa, you’re negotiating from a position of strength here, time to negotiate hard.
Edda wrote:
I think the tradition in this is that he only gets your soul if everything he says is technically true. Catch him in a lie and the deal is off. Naturally, this requires you to be very exacting about terms…
It occurs to me that, in the Constantine movie, the hero sells his soul to the Devil in return for saving somebody else from Hell, and ends up being unable to collect because the selfless sacrifice redeemed the hero.
Sneaky plan by God to save Larisa from Hell? By the standards of many religions, she’s already Hell-bound.
I feel like Larissa would wind up getting a kind of deal similar to Sock: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5LQe5nR2CgM
@ Djunk101:
hell is a punishment from God for sins not the devil if you sold your soul to the devil it basically means you signing your self into eternal servitude and granting control of your free will to the devil. basically the devil owns you and can thus get you to do anything he wants and you’d have no choice basically you become a puppet.
Who the hell runs his advertising/marketing department?!
Novil, I have to ask, does he have a bunch of dead ad men he goes to whenever he needs to come up with a new marketing pitch?
Great, now I just made myself think of the entire cast of Mad Men, in Hell, with them trying to pitch ideas to the devil.
“Deals so hot you won’t realize you’ve been burned!”
This strip reminds me of @ Your Pretty Face Is Going To Hell:
@[adult_swim]