The Wicked + The Divine. Ongoing Spoilers, Theories, and Fan Feels.

[JKtheMac]

As revelations and incidents are happening at a fast and furious pace I thought it might be easier to keep an ongoing discussion thread rather than reviewing each issue and then pondering and discussing it every month.

We are currently at #20 which begs a synopsis not least because it is a spoiler thread but I will place this first one in spoiler tags primarily because this is the first post.

spoilers:

This is mainly a flashback issue filling in the major gaps from the perspective of Laura and 'Baphomet'. The Norns turn up at Laura's house in response to a text from beyond the grave, Laura meets Cass and fills her in on the background. In many ways she trumps Cassandra's video journalism by providing her with a full on vision of what happened. We learn Laura never actually died, the panel leaves some ambiguity as to her injuries but she at least fell into a depression once she was taken to the Underworld. As if to complete the missing pieces of her myth cycle we learn that Baphomet is an alias. Instead, Cameron was Nergal and from his apotheosis it would appear in the aspect of the 'sun in the underworld' in the form of a fiery lion. We learn it was Inanna that technically saved Laura, it was his 'purple rain' flying that pushed her away and he who stood between Ananke and her target, before Baphomet/Nergal pulled her into the underworld. It turns out Laura initiated the sex between her and her underworld protector, and Persephone’s mission statement is “we have to save everyone”. Laura explains to Cass that they are about to storm Valhalla and when Cass tries to stop her she realises that Laura is a projection from Minerva’s owl. From Cass and Laura's interaction we get the first indication that Laura is still in there, as by reaching out to her she is explaining events to "the only person left that remembers me". She is portrayed as very human throughout this issue in contract to her dark and angry aspect in the last couple of issues. She has positive motivation and a humane regard for her fellow deities.

end of spoilers

[JKtheMac]

A couple of things we were not sure about get teased out here:

It is possible for there to be more than twelve gods in a cycle.
Cameron did receive a proper Apotheosis even if it did turn him into a different deity.
Ananke is choosing who can become deities instead of discovering the spark of divinity in the population.

What we still don’t know:

Can there be more than twelve deities at once?
Is Ananke necessary for apotheosis?
What Ananke’s machine actually is and why it requires sacrifice.
Who Tara was.
Who Woden’s partner is.
Why there are so many sun aspects running around.
Whether the are actually deities are necessary for culture.
Whether Ananke’s plan is for the greater good.

I had speculated and discussed how it didn't add up that Baphomet could have killed Inanna, and we get proof here that the Woden flashback issue was indeed a veiled revelation that Ananke killed him. It still isn't clear what she hoped to gain by pitting Inanna and Baphomet against each other. Was it just to get Laura's allies fighting off screen or was she just trying to thin out the potential troublemakers and get everyone looking the other way? The framing of Baphomet for Laura's death seemed to be a happy coincidence, but perhaps her plan was always to blame whoever survived.

Is Cameron just hiding his divine identity or is there more to this? The voice in his head seems to imply more, maybe he is suppressing Nergal. Geek associations aside (comic / computer game / metal) Nergal is not the kind of deity you want to let loose too often, and Ananke may have chosen this on purpose.

[JKtheMac]

Chances that Pink Woden is Laura's Sister?

Anyway. Its not that it was obvious that is the problem. Its the fact we are losing Shades of Gray. I find Baphomet (Nergal) getting manipulated into doing Ananke's dirty work and then having a revelation far more compelling then him stopping at that last minute.

I can understand your concern that things are becoming simplified in terms of good and evil, and motivations. I just don't think we are far enough into the story to make that call. As is always the problem when you review a story part way through, we don't have a good perspective on the overall structure. We don't know how many acts there are going to be. As a culture we are so programmed by the three act structure of most movies we unconsciously mutate any story we are following into that.

So following a story like this you get to the twist and you map it onto the three act structure and imagine we are moving into the third act. Interestingly this whole arc/trade is called Rising Action, which suggests Gillen is well aware of this as well. He is deliberately playing into the audience expectations and making us think we are heading into the third act / big battle.

We are not. We know the story is longer than that, so this is a bit of a fake-out. There is a bigger twist comming, and we know this purely because the structure can't be a three act story. There is clearly a lot we don't know about the back story and Ananke and that is what we are rushing towards. If I was writing this I would probably have the protagonist discover the underlying reasons for everything and the real story just after killing or defeating the bad guy. So maybe in three or four issues time we will have a better idea what is going on.

[JKtheMac]

Now that we have had time for issue 20 to sink in how do we feel about Laura?

It was clear for the first two trades that Laura was the protagonist and the character that served as our POV introduction to the world of the pantheon. Then I had the feeling from some commentators both here and on tumblr that when Persephone returned that Laura was somehow gone, dead or repressed.

So now it has been revealed that Laura didn't die, except perhaps on an emotional, grief stricken, and mystical level, and that she seems to retain some of her humanity, how do we see her?

For me, her apparent death made me less focused on the huge grief that she would have felt following the murder of both parents. I am so used to comics dealing with grief by focusing on the anger or bargaining stages, I was almost forgetting the other issues Laura would be facing. This issue was a shocking reminder to me how much of Laura's life has been ripped away.

[JediKage]

Well I think Laura is going to have to flip some of Ananke's Team. Her team is basically getting carried by Morrigan at this point. Laura is good but she is new. We know Baphomet cant beat Baal straight up. Heck he doesn't even think he stand a chance we saw that when he was picking targets to kill. Cass because know one liked her. Not Minerva because he couldn't kill a kid. Not Baal because he didn't think he would win. So Inanna cause he is easy.


I wish we could get more into the head of team Ananke. I mean we know what Woden is thinking and Sahkmet. But I don't feel we ever really gotten into Baal and Ama's heads the same way. And they are certainly the swayable options.

To answer your questions.

1) Looks like there can be more then 12. Granted we haven't see flashbacks for all of them. But it might be only 12 alive max at a time. Since 2 gods were dead before Laura.
2) I think Ananke is necessary we only seen anyone become a god thanks to her. Now it could be she is fudging the rules now.
3) It looks like its powered by Divine Energy. I don't know how she is picking who is powering it though. Seems like either Inanna or Nergal would have worked. We just don't know she needs Minerva for it to work for some reason. And she is not killing her for it. Now turning the machine on with Minerva might kill her.
4) I don't think we will know. I don't think which goddess she actually was matters.
5) Laura's Sister seems most likely. Assuming its a character we have already met and the height is consistent.
6) No Idea although every pantheon has a Sun God, its a pretty consistent deity.
7) Well apparently they are suppose to hold back the darkness. Not sure if they are necessary. We haven't really seen the threat unless its Ananke but it seems weird to make people who can challenge you. Unless you have to for some reason.
8) Well if its not we are losing some series Shades of Grey. And it becomes Ananke Evil or at least a Fallen Heroine of some sort. I don't think its going to be so bog straight.

[JKtheMac]

I don't see the Laura's sister connection at all. Where are you picking up the hint?

But I am interested if you or anyone else is feeling the shift in identification and empathy with Laura. I keep one eye on tumblr and it felt like there was a shift away from empathising with her when it seemed that she hadn't come back quite human. People were saying things like "that's not Laura, she is dead, that is just Persephone." But of course now we know it is Laura, and we have a better perception of her mental state.