Annotated 26-22
I no longer remember if we had any special reasons for the names “Blair” and “Tamara” (“Rosita” was just another “red” name, like “Scarlett”). But the name “Hestia” was deliberately chosen to evoke the Greek goddess of the hearth and home. To the Greeks, Hestia was the least colorful Olympian by a long shot, tending the hearth-fires and otherwise leaving the drama to her family. The human Hestia is… er, was… a much more outsize personality, but her belief that she’s building a home for her sisters and everyone else is still a hollow mockery of her namesake.
A time or two, Rachel has mentioned that life under Mother Scarlett was as abusive as you’d expect it to be. And like many abuse victims, Hestia has fallen into the patterns of her abuser, because they’re the only model she has. Even when she seems half aware that she’s doing so (“the beatings in the streets”), she can’t stop herself.
Hers is a self-hatred directed outward. Fighting the sister she wanted to bring back into the fold is what makes that self-hate catch up with her here, but there’s a good chance something else might’ve later, if Blair didn’t get her first. Yeah, the ways in which this sisterhood was doomed, with or without Rachel’s involvement, have really been piling up.
Unless you’re a disciple of Tectonicus don’t play with fire.
Hi Mister Tectonicus, can fire come out to play?
You know, seeing the Sisters use fire powers did make me think that they must be.
Then again, E-merl also uses fire. But it was my understanding that was via a magic item.
So, red herring, I guess.
But could, say, Frigg use her own power to produce other elements than “glowy beatings”? I don’t think this question ever became relevant enough to answer in the course of the story…
Is it just me or do those leaves and grass patch in panel 1 look a bit like an angry face?
now i can’t unsee that
I’ve never been entirely sure if she consciously burnt herself, or if it was purely subconscious realization she’d headed down the wrong path.
I had surmised that she had leveled up enough able to cast a “Consume Evil” spell (or whatever it would be called), but wasn’t aware that she’d be the target
Either that, or E-Merl figured out how to use his Backlash Wave
Probably both. If we’re going by the annotations here, she probably was honest in wanting to stamp out whatever she perceives as evil, while realizing that she too has become the very evil that she wanted to destroy(Obi Wan, meanwhile feels a great disturbance in the Force, as though a million references cried out and were silenced).
Heh, after this page I originally figured it was a “fire of the hearth” connection for Hestia’s name. The home thing never really crossed my mind.
It really feels like, at least in part, Hestia is saying “Why didn’t/won’t you stop me!” saying that Rachel wouldn’t, so she has to stop herself. It’s very sad, I wonder if Rachel had been around if things would have been different, or if like now, she is so forgiving, that Hestia would have still had to face her own judgment. It’s kind of like she knew she was wrong, she was just waiting to see herself reflected in her sister’s big ol’ doe eyes, before she could admit it.