February 5th, 2014
5 Feb 2014 · page 323 of 1306
This is only like, the third or so time a wizard's summoned a thing on purpose in this comic so far.
Cast: Nora Fenton, Rosie Bell
Comments (52)
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I swear that summoned thing makes me think of bacon
Little bit blue for bacon! I had to change the colours while doing it because it looked like Aquafresh.
it's probably just gluttony speaking through me wanting to get everyone to eat some bacon then :P
Looks like whoever predicted that circle inside of a circle=donut (aka, not in the circle at all) was right!
I dunno; a similar appearance was in the circle with Greed.
Yeah, this is just camera-work for classic summoning-circle-isolation.
Trying to figure out which spirit was summoned... Originally thought it was Hope, but it looks like Warrior Spirit (based on google-fu and Eririor), so the payment would be battle (incredibly odds optional).
My hat is off to you Ms Ashwin, I love the way you handle magic and spirits in this comic, a fun but solid system.
i'm going with bravery.
Courage...and payment is extreme bravery/courage. And...Rosie...heh...isn't really lacking in the Wizardy department. I strongly suspect that it's as dangerous to summon a Virtue as it is to summon a Deadly- you're playing with truly titanic forces in either case. One mistake could be curtains for you and those around you.
What did we summon? Something from Nora Barber Felton.... something that wants to join with Alexa's selfless courage.... might it be Courage????
I'm still curious what Nora has that Gluttony is so keen to keep her close by. Something that runs in the Barber clan.
Loyalty.
Is that... her fear ?
Summoning a Deadly Virtue? ;P
Awkward....
FORTITUDE is the Cardinal Virtue opposed to Gluttony.
As a virtue, "Fortitude" is the courage of soldiers in battle and martyrs in the face of torture -- but also the strength of ascetics to endure great fasts. And Fortitude is a Barber family trait.
temperence is more opposite to Gluttony I would think.
I think Temperance stands opposed to Greed, but that's me.
I thought Temperance at first too, until I researched it a bit. The common definition of Temperance is "not drinking much," but that is not what the virtue means.
There is some overlap in the virtues. Temperance does guard against the desire for "too much" -- food, drink, money. Thus Temperance stands against Greed, as Nonesuch observes below.
The subtle difference is found in Aristotelian philosophy (and thus also Aquinas): Gluttony originates in the animal locus of the belly. Thus it requires the willful heart of the chest to defeat it. This is Fortitude, the strength to overcome animal desires for food and fears of bodily harm.
Greed originates in the spiritual center of the head. And so it needs a spiritual virtue to overcome it. Temperance is a sub-virtue of Justice: Temperance is the habit of knowing that I do not deserve more than I need or more than I have worked for.
The heavenly virtues vary quite a bit according to who you ask. Aquinas only names 4 virtues, I think.
But in the works that explicitly mirror 7 sins with 7 vitues, Temperance is the opposite of gluttony.
Fortitude does not feature in that particular scheme, though. There, it is:
Temperance-Gluttony
Charity-Greed
Humility-Pride
Kindness-Envy
Diligence-Sloth
Patience-Wrath
Chastity-Lust
"Adoramus te"? That's a pretty strong phrase; it might well put off any of the heavenly virtues.
Don't worry. It's dulia, not latria!
STOP BEING LEARNED
IT MAKES ME HAVE TO THINK
I don't think so. The Virgin Mary gets "Holy Mary, blessed art thou among women." The Saints get "Saint [your name here], protect us," and perhaps "veneristes te" but they'd never get "adoramus te," 'we love (adore) thee' -- that's pure latria.
(A learned discussion of the implicit theological content of a web comic. I love it.)
I can imagine Kate is giggling now. "Two years of stealth evangelization is finally paying off!"
I'm actually agnostic! I just like to mangle Latin :)
LOL! Your agnosticism is more Catholic than most Catholics' Catholicism!
Is that militant agnostic?
I think you can get a cream for that!
Fwiw, that seems to be in line with the philospohy of Augustine:
""They [the pagans] have made Virtue also a goddess, which, indeed, if it could be a goddess, had been preferable to many. And now, because it is not a goddess, but a gift of God, let it be obtained by prayer from Him, by whom alone it can be given, and the whole crowd of false gods vanishes."
(City of God, IV, 20)
My bet is on Courage / Fortitude, which does indeed belong to the Four Heavenly Virtues, a subset of the Seven Cardinal Virtues. ^^
Hey...when faced with a Deadly Sin...bring forth one of the Cardinal Virtues...
I just realized that in a comic about magic, this is the first time in two years anything potentially benevolent been summoned! Well, TrumpetDuck is probably benevolent enough...
This comment made me realize that the weird creature in my dream a few nights ago was trumpet duck!
she is so unassuming and innocently humble, complimenting her new friend whilst pulling off an amazing feat and rescuing everyone in the hotel.
Yeah, Rosie is pretty awesome. :)
No.... She's ADORABLE!
Adorably awesome! Or awesomely adorable? At any rate, Rosie rocks!
I was thinking that she looks particularly adorable in the first panel, but she is pretty awesome too!
Given that the offering is "facing down horrible doom alone" + "for her friends" it's got to be either courage or some type of loyalty/selflessness.
Judging by how Sloth drained sleep from its offerings, this one will probably drain courage. Unless Alexa's got a lot to spare she'll probably have to let it do the fighting when it gets up there.
Or possibly it will fortify Alexa's courage and help her fight, because this isn't one of the malicious seven sins, but a positive entity.
To the Barber spirit of adventure, or possibly to Courage, that would be a gift. An awesome gift! ^^ And hey, Courage/Fortitude is one of the four Heavenly virtues, so _score!
P.S.: Update before last, I asked whether Nora has any children, and Ms. Ashwin was kind enough to remind me she has a daughter. ^^ I asked because, as much as Nora resembles Harry, her figure seems softer, rounder, more maternal - such as can be caused by giving birth.
I'm with Dvarin and Alex Hollins, and as such my money is on loyalty.
Strictly speaking she isn't just selflessly facing danger for her friends. She has a personal interst in getting home herself.
is there supposed to be an ad at the very top of the page? I disabled adblock for your site when I realized it was. . . well. . . doing it's job (love your comic ^ 3^ ~<3 ), but I still see the text at the top of the page requesting it be disabled.
I'd thought it was supposed to be under an ad, but I can still read it so. . . ?
Yes, there is supposed to be an ad over that text. Might want to recheck your whitelist.
I have the same problem as Nalyd. I have the whole url of [widdershinscomic.com](http://widdershinscomic.com "widdershinscomic.com") whitelisted in Adblock and Adblock is still blocking it. It's not that I particularly like seeing adverts but I'd like to have Kate get credit for having the adverts up. I think it may be Avast blocking it instead. I'm going to try something... (Edit: The something I tried, didn't work.)
Weird. . . I get the side ads at least. Wonder what makes the top banner so special?
Really interesting discussions in here as to what this could be.
Well, when Nora said she'd do what she must to help Alexa, despite her apparent fear, Rosie said that she's perfect for the job. Which, along with the "offering" of a courageous girl fighting for her friends against overwhelming odds, does indeed point to courage / fortitude.
Can't wait to see what the Virtue will look like!
You know, I've been thinking that she's Harry's grandmother and that this whole story started her career.
Oh. I miiight have overlooked/forgotten that part XD goes re-read
...I never thought if VIRTUES could be summoned.
I assume it carries at least a little risk, though...
I’m guessing here and now (although I bet the answer is on the next comic) that Rosie, Nora, and Alexa have summoned a cardinal virtue —— maybe Fortitude? (Sometimes aka Courage?). I see from the comments I almost didn’t read that someone else guessed Hope.