Aphrodite

Sooo... I have been thinking

(Lefou: A dangerous pastime)

I know.

I´ve realized something: For people who are not excessively into Mythology, this webcomic is pretty hard to get into. While I already plan on adapting some of the original myths as extras for the collected, colored Volume that I will be selling in about half a year from now, that does not help the people who want to get into the story HERE. As such every contestant will get an introductory comic strip right before their first fight.

So the next four week will go like this: I will post the four origin stories of the past two fights and change the dates in th the fifth week, so new readers can read them in the intended order.

- Nekromantenhase

Conclusion

This fight was a bit tough to plan, since the opponents were so different in strenght. I came to the conclusion that it would be illogical for Hermes to seek physical combat when he thinks that he has no chance of winning. Now that he has tried what he thought had the best chance of success, there is nothing left to do other than limitation of damage. So... I hope that fans of Hermes were not too disappointed.

- Nekromantenhase

YOOOUUU!

Never utter the phrase "any last words", Horus.
Never ever.
There is ALWAYS a comeback.
- Nekromantenhase

I´d hang it on my fridge

Serious Horus is serious!
Cute Horus... not so much.
- Nekromantenhase.

Gymnastics

Hermes hasn´t got the title of god of Gymnastics for nothing!

Unfortunately he hasn´t got the the title of the strongest god for anything either.

*thinks*

Err, you know what I mean. 

I hope.

- Nekromantenhase

No sell

Horus is an interesting god in the way that he is actually two gods... or fifteen, or more, depending on who you ask. There used to be at least two different gods called Horus that melted into one being over time, which itself is being represented in many different facets. For example there is the Horus that is associated with the cult of the pharao, usually represented by the double-crown symbol over his head or child-Horus, represented as a human child with the lock of the adolescents.
- Nekromantenhase

Horus vs Hermes

A couple of small comments that I´d like to add, but first things first:
You guys have been voting the past week and Baldr made first place! As such I´d like to provide you with this nifty wallpaper I made (click to enlarge):

You can find a description of what´s going on and 

lots of extra content, wallpapers etc. at

http//immortalcarnival.tumblr.com

Also, as some of you might have noticed: Hermes looks different from what he looked like before in this comic and Horus looks and acts differently from when he was introduced in the first draft, back when "Immortal Combat!" was still called "Pantheon" and hosted on deviantart.

The first change is due to my style developing and me learning more and more about anatomy and facial features. As such, since I want to improve my style and raise my production value over time, change in character design is inevitable for something as drawn out as "Immortal Combat!".

For example I have also decided that the symbols of the Egyptian gods float over their heads. That applies to at least some of them. Since Egyptian Gods are shapeshifters by default (meaning that they don´t really have a shape set in stone), I decided to include this feature mostly with characters where it is actually important. And Horus happens to be one of them.

The second change is rooted in something that might be avoideable if I had the time to think this webcomic completely through before I even draw the first line: My level of knowledge is different from when I first started "Pantheon". I always had a knack for memorizing little facts about Mythology, but most of my information came from secondady material: Tv shows, fantasy books, movies etc. 

Now that I have actually read some Egyptian, Greek, Norse Myths, I started to think differently about these characters, I have found new facets and things that conflict with the original design I had in mind.

For example: I had first intended for Baldr to be lawful good, but stupid. After having read parts of the Edda, it´s quite obvious to me that he really is not dumb by any means, he is very tragic, though. 

None of the already established characters are going to change so much as to no-one could recognize them anymore. To make it short: Don´t worry, Moe-Horus isn´t gone or something.

I am rhubarbering today, I swear. First the tumblr-post, now this.

Oh well, I hope it was interesting to some, at least.

- Nekromantenhase

End of Intermission

Baldr is - with a healthy margin - one of the nicest gods in the Norse Pantheon. He cares a lot about his blind brother and usually speaks out for the weak or neglected. There is an element of tragedy to him, though, since he has prothetic dreams of his own death and the downfall of the Gods that is heralded by it ...
- Nekromantenhase

I´m SORRY!

Yeah, that´s a funny fact I stumled upon while researching:
Norse Gods can die
Egyptian Gods can die
Greek Gods kinda sorta... can´t. At least none of the main twelve. Titans die. Monsters die. Heroes die.
As such Athene is at least convinved of their immortality. Up until now she had no reason to think otherwise...

Her heart will go on

I´ll probably go to tartarus for that title-joke.

- Nekromantenhase

...

...nnnothing to say here.

- Nekromantenhase

The shame of Hel

The pride of Hel

The comment about Hel´s weight might not be an insult but rather an important plot point!
Or... not.
- Nekromantenhase

Annoyance

The belt she mentions is the belt of Aphrodite which is pretty much a charisma-buff.

- Nekromantenhase

Pearl of Aphrodites Belt Dress-Up!

Oh, the references, they just keep piling up... and yes, that is a stylized seashell in the background of Panel 2.
Gosh, this sequence was so much fun...
- Nekromantenhase

Olympian Spirit

The first one to guess where the reference of panel 2 came from, gets a virtual cookie :D
The "embarassed Venus" is a whole trope in art. And yes, I know: I pretend that Venus = Aphrodite, even though there ARE differences. I just can´t help but think that they (Greek Panthon) just changed names and adapted to the Roman Empire.
- Nekromantenhase

Credit for the idea of the "Hug of Doom" goes to Ireseor :D
For anyone who wonders why the heck there are rabbits there: Those are Aphrodites/Venus associated animals for... obvious... reasons... (do English people have the idiom "to proliferate like bunnies?)
- Nekromantenhase

The Power of Love

NOTHING CAN STOP THE POWER OF LOVE!
NOT EVEN PANEL-BORDERS!!!
-Nekromantenhase

Sick Buuuuuurrrrn!

The "diseased incineration" originally involved a joke about Aphrodite being a Transvestite because she was born from Kronos "magic stick". I really prefer this version. First, because, well, it wasn´t very fitting, second, it was kinda stupid and insulting to transvestites and trans-gender people and third, this one is actually relevant and MEAN. 

- Nekromantenhase

Da Rules

The reason why Maat put "death" into quotation marks is that death does not affect the gods during the tournament, since all the gods and goddesses of death made an oath not to let it count. (That´s what Athene meant when she said that Tanathos promised not to do his duty during the tournamen a few strips back, in case that flew over your head.) They can sort of die though - it just doesn´t count. Let´s leave it at that since it´ll get more clear once it actually happens... or rather if it happens ;)
- Nekromantenhase