Events
ThoughtBubble
14 Nov 2026 – 15 Nov 2026
Harrogate Convention Centre
Manchester Megacon
31 Jul 2027 – 1 Aug 2027
Manchester Central
Lust, you fool! You should have sent her out into the jungle after a dangerous artifact, covered in mud and dirt, forcing her and 'Sidney' to disrobe in a convenient grotto to wash up! Much more believable!
Mm. For a master manipulator he's not doing well here.
Yeah, or it's us who've made the wrong assumptions. Maybe, deep down, she wants to know how the other half lives? Maybe she sees Florrie, and she thinks she might enjoy that? My guess is that she'd be supremely uncomfortable and end up hating it genuinely, but just because she's a Strong Female Character doesn't mean she can't possibly have a softer side... or at least curiousity about it.
Addendum: To my mind it's her sudden ability to dance (and other unrealistic details) that'll snap her out of it rather than the appropriateness of the scenario to her desires :P
Exactly because of that Lux would be better to choose the "grotto in the jungle" scenario as more realistic one. :)
Though I think the main problem there is "Sid"'s way of acting, and I suppose it is something beyond Lux's reach.
Right. Can we see Sid ever "shhh"ing Harry? Or not validating her question? Sid always trusts Harry's vast experience with danger. Also, he's adorkable, not suave. ^_^
Adorkable! Love it! (I used to call my daughter's cat Dorkian!)
I agree... the dancing etc. are unrealistic details, but if her desire to be with Sid is what Lux is counting on to hold her, he's already botched the most important part! I almost wonder if she'd leave the suspicious bits alone a little longer if Sid had seemed right. Smooth-talking and coordinated are very much not traits Sid has!
Yeah, I mean Harry just offered a perfect opportunity for him to go into excited magical techno-babble there and he didn't take it.
I agree with you. If she was in a fancy ball to celebrate them helping with the Deadlies, tripping over her feet with Sid helping her and laughing with her over his own clumsiness - THAT would be more in line of expectations and keep her in the bubble longer. However, Lust is in a hurry, and just needs to entertain her 'for a bit', and didn't put the thought into it beyond 'She loves Sidney, she wants to dress up and live this life, let's go'.
I think that she is definitely trying to snap out of it already!
...Or maybe Lux's been getting his ideas about the Barbers from Florrie, resulting in misdirection.
I'm wondering if it wasn't done on purpose. Like, what if the plan is to divide and conquer, getting her out of the way until It could get Mal under control and then attempting something similar on her when she gets out? Or heck, even offering to put her and Sid back in the nice fantasy world (or one adjusted to how she'd like it) once It takes over instead of just destroying them?
No, I think he's just got it wrong. Lux wholly misread the inner desires of her grandfather, too, the first time he tried, though once he focused and paid attention he did come a lot closer.
He was in a hurry here, and went for generic. Mistake.
Not only is he in a hurry, he's juggling a big pile of people all at once. I'm actually kind of surprised she'd be the only one he misjudged, because they're kind of atypical people for this setting based on what we've seen about the world so far.
He hasn't tried to do anything like this to the others yet, though (except for Wolfe, whose desires are fairly obvious). It's quite possible he would get something wrong if he tried this on Ben, Vee, or Sid.
Sheesh yeah, this feels more like a Bronte Novel than anything that would get Harry Romantically inclined.
Somewhat prophetic, considering where Harry ended up and the result......
I love the subtleties of the NPCs in this scene. Also, yay for [starting to be] breaking the ... bubble? Fourth wall? Err, third-and-a-half wall?
Hairstyles of NPCs in the last panel suddenly remind me of Invidia and Superbia's ones.
I had the same thought!
I see it now. I wonder if Lux is using 'path of least resistance' world-building, that is, populating the miniworld with constructs based on people it knows best rather than just creating new illusions out of whole cloth.
She's not seeing us, so definitely not the Fourth Wall.
Count on a detective to figure out she's in an illusion.
- So pretty in pink - (snigger)
At least it was an easy page to colour.
Lust can't make illusions of what it can't comprehend. Lust is all about getting the object of desire, ends justifies the means, and all that. For someone like Harry, it's all about the journey.
Which is fairly stupid (not saying you are- I am saying Lust here is stupid). I am sure there is a long, long history of funny, awkward intellectual types that weasel their way into a noblewoman's arms. Lust should be aware of this.
I think that kind of attraction is too complicated for him. Too nuanced.
Yeah, but this is like gluttony only understanding a single flavor. There is no perfect chili- you can only have several different flavors of chili that each grab a different portion of the market.
Perhaps you're right and if he really concentrated he might have been able to pull it off. Lux is more sophisticated about humans than any of the other sins.
But this is like Gluttony trying to tempt someone with a chili loaded with cilantro, without noticing that the person is one of those to whom cilantro tastes like soap. Wrong recipe entirely! And remember, Gluttony mostly didn't create its own food. That sort of complexity was beyond it. It relied on talented human chefs. What it added to the food was only desire and addictiveness.
Personally... I think it is going to be some ironic self defeating villain thing where he goes around complaining about how humans are impure muddled messes... but Lust has spent so much time in the human world that he has lost his own clarity/purity.
It is a classic villain trope- your plan falls apart because you failed in the very way that you rant against.
I dunno, the summoning of Gluttony that set off the whole Hotel Gula TARDIS episode was specifically about finding The Perfect Food for the Hotel's "Let's impress the investors" party. And spirits don't appear to be able to conjure physical objects (even the Liar's Heart was, I suspect, just a somewhat gaudy piece of jewelry before Lux got its hands on it).
I think a better analogy might be trying to tempt someone with pizza without taking into account that they've got terrible heartburn and thus a reason why they might turn it down despite thinking it's super tasty. Or maybe those times when you buy a delicious looking doughnut, and then you bite into it and the glaze turns out to be way too sweet.
Or, as he'd put it, too chaotic.
She's catching up on it already, haha
I'm sure there are some convenient chairs against the wall, there, Harry.
In which Harry realizes she's in a comic.
It's like everything stops for a few days. ... Then I'm alive again. ... Then it all stops. ...
Nope... Harry's a tough prospect where suspension of disbelief is concerned. Plus, Luxuria will also have to suspend her pipe habit in the present scenario... how's that going, Lux?
Mr. Luxuria (aside): Rough! Suspension or displacement of desire, while I'm not unable, isn't the direction in which my powers naturally flow... nnngh! ...and Harry's desire for her pipe is really strong and really ingrained... ugh! ...plan B!
Harry: I really need a smoke. Can we slip outside?
Sid!Luxuria: Certainly, my darling!
Harry: And I've got some serious questions about this place. Where are we? Who would invite me to a ball like this? Or you? Why aren't we stepping on each other's feet? How-
Sid!Luxuria: Plan C. Oh, look - isn't that your sister, and your mother?
faux-Florrie: Harry! You came! And you brought your darling beau!
faux-Elaine: Harry... well done. You've made your mother proud. Such a fine young man. beams
Harry: ...I really, really need my pipe! grabs Sid!Luxuria, tries to scan ballroom for nearest exit
Sid!Luxuria: Actually, sweetheart, you can smoke in here. I wouldn't take us to a place where your favourite pastime would be unwelcome.
Harry: points discreetly at faux-Florrie :-S
faux-Florrie: Oh, you know that I was just worried that it would make you less able to get a husband, but if Sid is happy with it... :-)
Harry: turns back to Sid!Luxuria, points discreetly at Elaine
faux-Elaine: Likewise, dear. That is all I was worried about. fades slightly in the face of Harry's scepticism
Harry: Hmmm... knits brows You know, mother, you should probably get a pipe yourself. It'll calm your nerves.
faux-Elaine: Maybe...
Harry: Ha! points at Sid!Luxuria You are Deadly Lux, and I claim my five senses back!
Mr. Luxuria: cringes as his illusion collapses Er... if you're going to reject my reality, wouldn't you rather substitute your own? inadvertently copies Sid's nervous grin
>:=)>
Looks like Lux didn't do the research...
It seems Lux really didn't expect her presence and had to wing it.
At first I thought it was the eyes changing to slightly square, but now I realize that calling her "love" was something Sid just wouldn't do.
not to mention shushing her and telling her not to worry her pretty little head about it.
Luxuria have you been watching Anastasia or...? You were closer to the mark when they were outdoors...
I just went on another archive binge and every time I do I gain appreciation for this comic. I bet someone's pointed this out before, but I just realized that it's pretty much ideal for a TV adaptation :) episodic, cinematic, large cast, tight writing and plotting, and even the chapter lengths are pretty consistent, but each one is different and surprising and entertaining and awesome. I think it should definitely be pitched.
And there should be musical numbers. Curtain call (part I?) will have seven of them.
> And there should be musical numbers. Curtain call (part I?) will have seven of them.
Yeah, and when characters fall under a Deadly influence, they join in its song, with little variations of their own. :)
Now I recall Kate posted a photo of some actor who fits the role of Sidney.
Hah, Dev Patel is pretty close, he's the exact right height and build at least! Could never decide on an appropriate Harry, not a lot of Yorkshire-accented below-average height actresses that I know offhand.
Kitty Pride. But, she spent her time in Scotland, mostly. And, she isn't an actress. Or, a real person. But, short, adventurous, brunette, and a comic book character. Close.
I imagine the scenes with Pride flying up through the "impudent ceiling", Wolfe and Voss' violin duet, hiking through the mist of Sloth made on the screen... and maybe, Wolfe's playing his violin against Wrath as two struggling musical themes... Sigh.
I once had a dream where I was listening to what turned out to be a radio play version of Widdershins. That wouldn’t actually work very well - for one thing, Mal’s Sight would be pretty much impossible to convey without the visuals - but I still occasionally amuse myself by imagining how certain scenes could be portrayed with dialogue and sound effects.
Maybe in the adaptation Mal only hears spirits, and they sound extra spooky
As good as it will be for her to break out of this and come to Mal's aid, her reaction to Sid and Ve as they are right now is going to be hard to watch.
Question, though. When she does break out this illusion, how are they going to appear to her? Are they going to look the same as an effect , or different since she doesn't have the same type of sight that Mal and Lux do?
I didn't think about that, and my first thought now is that she wouldn't be able to see "naked spirits" at all. Thankfully if so.
Other quick thought. What if Lux giving her an illusion she could break out of was on purpose? What if the plan is to divide and conquer, getting her out of the way until It could get Mal under control and then attempting something similar on her when she gets out? Or heck, even offering to put her and Sid back in the nice fantasy world (or one adjusted to how she'd like it) once It takes over instead of just destroying them?
I like how all the other "people" in the room have the same figure-drawing-sketch effect as Lust's base form, confirming (if we didn't know already) whose work this scene is.
I also like how the last panel implies they're all Lust.
Poor Sidney is so happy to be playing Prince Charming for once instead of bumbling sidekick!
"Not that being a sidekick isn't charming in its own way, of course! I just meant that being the prince... well, er... I'm not very competent, you see?"
I’m not sure that really is Sid. It looks like him, but it doesn’t talk or act like him. (It’s not talking enough, for one thing...)
Yeah, needs more rambling! :D
Ha! And since when does he call Harry "love"? He thinks it, but to say it out loud....
Good point! I was wondering why she got to play with the disembodied but Mal had to face the music.
Too generic, Lux.
Harry uses suspicion. It's (???) effective...
Panel three--that really doesn't look like Sid, does it? The face is the same, but the way it's being used isn't right. And I think that's what snaps Harry to attention.
Next question has to be "who are you?"
I feel like it's Luxuria's eyes peering out of Sid's face.
Note that only Harry is tagged in this strip...
I think that's one of the many ways Lux is getting things wrong here. Whether it's because Lux is too heavily relying on some idle fantasy of Harry's or because it just hasn't bothered and is giving her the Generic Happy Romance Montage, the details are all kinds of messed up. Which in turn causes her to scrutinize more details, like the other partygoers not being fully rendered....
Harry's expression in the last panel gives me life.
honestly lux as if sid would ever called harry love without dying of embarrassment
Just have to say, I LOVE this panel. I love how the detail fades away the farther you get from Harry. The people in the back are just mannequins without hair or clothes, and the right side of the ballroom is entirely dissolved into pink mist. It's great symbolism for how shallow and superficial this creation, and Lust by extension, really is. I also love how this panel is reiterating that Harry loves Sid not just for his cute appearance, but also for his emotional intelligence and sweetness. Although Luxuria can do a perfect imitation of the appearance, that is not what/who Harry loves. ^_^
I actually love that it's not just symbolism. That last panel, Harry, already put off by incongruities like "Since when can I dance?" and "You're literally not capable of being this suave," is starting to notice that the rest of the scene isn't fully rendered.
Suspension of disbelief broken by lack of trod-on toes.
Tisk Lux,
Someone didn't do the reading material. They sell Harriet Barber penny novels man. Though I suppose time travel is Gluttony's thing.
Well, if Lux were able to read them, it would have known how it has been defeated. :)
You underestimated Harry very, very, _very_ badly, Luxuria.
I can't wait to see her put her boot up your **!
Yes she has probably thought about romantic ball dances before and how nice it might be to try one... But there's a difference between thinking and doing as she probably remembers why she doesn't like them... And how strange it is to see her dressed up like that.
Though a can see her thinking about Sidney in a suit like that.
=== And how strange it is to see her dressed up like that. ===
As well as (to her) to see two trousered figures dancing together, while she has to wear this long-brimmed, uncomfortable dress that you keep stepping on.
The first thing that shatters the illusion is that she isn't stepping on it. That never happens!
I know we've had this conversation before, and that the spirits are essentially 'it', but I'm classing Luxuria as male. He makes the assumption that all a young woman wants is to go to a great big fancy party, wear a pretty dress and dance with all the boys. His objectification of woman is typical of the driving perpetuating component of systematic gender oppression that values women as mere embellishments and is clearly at odds with modern progressive societal norms.
(Sexual) lust is all about objectification, isn't it? Btw, I wondered if Lux has ever taken a form of woman, and it seems it did: [https://www.widdershinscomi...](https://www.widdershinscomic.com/wdshn/may-1st-2018/ "https://www.widdershinscomic.com/wdshn/may-1st-2018/")
As a tangent, I am a bit puzzled with Lux's words "I spent a lot of time in human form. More than most humans, in fact." I mean, there was a human who lived a few hundred years?
Have you never met Hob Gadling? If not, get a copy of 'Men of Good Fortune' by Neil Gaiman. Probably the best (with due respect to Ms Ashwin) graphic short story of all time.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wi...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hob_Gadling "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hob_Gadling")
Evil grinning. I have it in for Neil Gaiman, and "it" is called "The Problem of Susan". :)
We saw Lux take the form of a woman, when it tempted Wolfe, remember? : P
Ha-ha. :) Actually, I have recalled this in my thoughts about objectification: then Lux more than appealed to Wolfe's sexual desires, it played on his chivalry inclinations. But maybe, they go together with sexual preferences for Lux to "read".
I wondered rather if there was a form of woman between the "long-played" roles of Lux, and, in fact, we saw there was in the sixth chapter already: [https://www.widdershinscomi...](https://www.widdershinscomic.com/wdshn/july-17th-2015/ "https://www.widdershinscomic.com/wdshn/july-17th-2015/")
So yeah, I forgot that. :)
Hunter instincts kicking in, go Harry GO!
This is Harry using what Greed told her to, even though she's not consciously aware of using it. Once she is consciously aware of his advice and actively using it, Lux will fall.
Oh, and I like all the sparkles around the ballroom.
Clearly this is a sketchy venue. (Am I 12th to reach for the low-hanging pun? 😉)
Lust. Come on. This is shallow crap. This is text book "What would a victorian woman want from a guy"- this is not tailor made.
Barber is the tough type that likes the goofy guy that relies on her. This illusion will only work if another girl tries to fight barber in order to take her man (and after bunching that woman out, boy toy here swoons into Barber's arms).
Seriously man. You had centuries to work on this plan, but you didn't even do basic research about the targets?
So, everybody has been pointing out how inappropriate Lust's choice here was. I wonder: maybe he didn't choose this setting for her, but rather, for the ancestor whose bloodline Harry holds. After all, this is all the kind of stuff Florrie would like, and even Mrs. Barbara would probably be a bit more susceptible to this kind of good, clean ballroom fun. Maybe he went with a "the apple doesn't fall far from the tree" approach, but was wildly wrong, because Harry is so much her father's daughter.
Grandfather's granddaughter, not father's daughter (we haven't met the Barber siblings' parents yet), but you do have a point.
That's a good point. I mean, when we were introduced to Izzy, she was specifically reading a book about how to behave in places like this. Maybe Lust figures it runs in the family.
"You're being suave. It doesn't suit you, stop it at once."
I know it isn't quite your forte, Ser Lust, but you really should think about taking a little more pride in your work. Or more care, at least. Slipshod delusions like this will not fool a Barber for long, and you're a moron to think otherwise after all the experience you have with the bloodline.
This seems an appropriate reference: [http://www.youtube.com/watc...](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fi1A9s6WTiw "http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fi1A9s6WTiw")
--
Those people look... Sketchy
I love Harry’s expression in the last panel it says wait this is way too fishy to be real. We pity the fool who put her here, cause when she gets loose he’s going to really get it.