February 11th, 2026
11 Feb 2026 · page 1278 of 1306
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Cast: Jack O'Malley, Pacifica, Widdershins
Comments (50)
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For a genius loci that has problems with humans with their pesky greed, envy, and pride, Pacifica sure seems to have a lot of emotions themself.
Fear and loathing aren't on the Sins list, so those are presumably alright…?
In older systems, Despair used to be one of the big sins. Arguably, Pacifica could have given in to that?
I always thought that, when Despair’s been thought of as a sin as opposed… a kind of spiritual injury or illness, it’s usually been considered part of Sloth. Even now, we use phrases like “don’t give into despair,” which carries the implication avoiding despair is a function of effort and Sloth is just unwillingness to put in the effort.
I believe it’s traditionally seen on the spectrum of Pride. The argument is that you think you can handle your own problems rather than having faith in God. When you succeed, it’s your success (pride). When you fail, it’s all you (despair). That’s if I’m remembering The Faerie Queene correctly.
Melancholy. The One That Left Before They Became Famous
The One That Left Before They Became Famous - Sturzkampf - Widdershins (Webcomic) [Archive of Our Own] An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative WorksVery nice! If only it were that easy to banish melancholia…
I see a lot of Wrath and Pride there.
Though Thea’s dad would have happily relocated her to Las Vegas 😋
That sounds like Wrath to me. And Pride, as well.
Fascinating idea that an anchor could deliberately decide “The heck with this” and hide from people, though.
Wasn’t Widdershins witch-less for quite a while? They may be sympathetic to Pacifica’s pain
ooooh boy
“You can't go around building a better world for people. Only people can build a better world for people. Otherwise it's just a cage.” And you can’t argue with the great Sir Terry.
I doubt he’d have minded people arguing with him, so long as they were polite about it. Arguing means there’s communication happening, which hopefully means there’s thought. And arguing means there isn’t one person running the whole show and everyone else is too afraid to speak up.
I rather think Terry would insist on people arguing.
Aye, just as long as they think, I believe he’d like it
Sounds like you’re quoting a character. I bet there are some other characters you could argue with quite a lot.
I don't have the book to hand, but I'm pretty sure that's Esme Weatherwax. Being conflict averse, I'm definitely not arguing with her.
The great Sir Terry might welcome an argument. Granny Weatherwax on the other hand…
I’m wondering where Mal is right now. Is he asleep, an observer, or can he take an active role in the conversation? If he can talk with Widdershins, what will they say to each other? I expect the first thing Widdershins will say is, ‘can you please stop dropping your dog ends all over me?’
Dunno about The O’Malley - but he gets a character tag while Thea does not.
Still think she’s dead/drowned. That witch does not look healthy
I think Widdershins would’ve sensed that on some level if so; they speak as if Thea is still in there and will use her body again at some point.
Good point. Widdershins wouldn’t have been worried about “your witch’ll catch a chill” if said witch was already drowned.
She may just be dormant, but I don’t know if that would be enough to lose character tag status — I wonder if she had to switch places with the anchor in order for the anchor to be able to leave?
That could explain why the 4th anchor library had all Thea’s “books” in it along with Eliza and Henry’s, even though Pacifica was on Aotearoa at the time. Thea was there at the same time they were.
Wasn’t that library destroyed? Or was it simply expelling Eliza and Henry?
They talk about it as a theoretical place, I think it probably shifts around in a way that's dangerous to people walking around in it, but could also reconstitute again, based on what the anchor is doing. Just a guess, though!
A few problems there Pacifica…
1) you've assumed that humans will suffer less after you remove the sins
2) you only have the seven deadlines, there's also lesser spirits like hunger. Are you going to keep destroying all the spirits you disapprove of?
3) do the spirits create the emotions? Or the emotions that spirits? Finally…
4) you actually don't have the deadlies right now do you? You dropped them outside the door where a very helpful German musician and English wizard can take and run with then. I'm sure they're right where you left then
I imagine that the thought is that the elimination of the Seven Deadlies would cover those under their domains as well. Depending on the source material of stories of this genre either that happens, or it allows something new to rise. Perhaps a more daunting proposition however is what about the things that do not count as Deadlies/their domains, or even those things that might count as good, but not in abundance.
As for “do the spirits create the emotions? Or the emotions that spirits?” I think it’s reciprocal, but destroying one unbalances the equation and obliterates both.
“do the spirits create the emotions? Or the emotions that spirits?” Once she has the power of four anchors, that’d be childsplay to fix.
I hope Mal will be able to remember some of this to tell Eliza later. She’d go nuts over the implication that the reason most people didn’t believe in the Fourth Anchor is that Pacifica was deliberately hiding.
Fun! ^_^
If she “had enough”, does that mean she was used by humans in the past? Does that mean she existed in a place with human settlements and “hid” by moving? Her antipode anchor is Chomolungma - was it always there? Would it have to move with her?
I’m fascinated by the implications here!
Atlantis, sunken under the sea
Ooh if that’s true, she’s already done mass murder….
Maybe not Atlantis, but I wouldn’t be surprised if there used to be some kind of island there, and meso- and South American wizards were a thing until the Anchor decided “Nuts to these jerks” and sank the island. (Whenever that was.)
Some traditions put Mu (an ancient civilization before Atlantis) in the Pacific.
Quote Pemberton Pryce:
“[We are] near where the fourth anchor’s gotta be.”
I’d conclude that it didn’t move much, but even if so, it clearly wasn’t enough.
Yeah, my thought was that long ago, the 4th anchor might’ve been much closer to the mainland, then moved out to sea to get away from human influence - which would have had a corresponding effect on the location of the antipode anchor, which then ended up at Chomolungma.
Then, many years later, Pryce’s people would’ve been able to find it using the same theory that Eliza had. But only a big leap in technology and effort could make it accessible, allowing it to hide until humans got stubborn enough to come knocking again.
Wow, I love seeing Pacifica’s view of the previous villains. I wonder if Widdershins is going to bring up what happened to them in Chapter 3.
Panel 4 looks incredible, excellent job using her hair as a panel-within-a-panel
Remember a week or two back when The O’Malley’s shadow was the Widdershins skyline.
Interesting. I wonder if the Himalayan and Pacific Island Anchors are as remote as they are for similar (if perhaps less intense) reasons as Pacifica hiding at the bottom of the sea: dealing with humans’ being messy by limiting interaction.
Makes you wonder how and why Widdershins seems fine with it. Even if the Anchor was there before any human settlement, it doesn’t seem to have any desire to leave.
I love the chin in the hand!!!
This was about the only good thing that happened to me today.
I’m beginning to wonder if Pacifica/Thea is having some daddy issues here.
“And now you've got a witch, you're corrupted by wrath. Do we lobotomize you, too?”
“And how does that make you feel, Pacifica?”
she’s only looking at one side of the coin
One human tried to do that. Several others tried to stop him.
But you’ve done those same things. Twice. And you’re trying again right now!
They’re both wearing blue clothes, which is logical for Pacifica. Is the fact that blue is Mal’s prefered color relevant here?