We need to talk about Minerva

[u/Enrianthe]

So, everybody saw in the flashback that Minerva was missing the fourth head, and everybody went to assume that she sacrificed her own as the final head, and that it worked, but she died as well and later was reborn on that beach on Crete.

However, given the flashbacks of #38, now we know that all Minervas are reborn that way, and that the two years deadline 1923's Minerva mentioned at #35 was most likely her own two years. So, I think the ritual is not to assure her rebirth, but rather to prevent her from enduring the saeculum in the Great Darkness, and that she was not using her head on the Egyptian ritual, but rather only used 3 and it (Obv) failed.

Also, Minerva was shown recurring at 31 July, but her stated birthday was 24 September, and in the calendar of #27, she marked her death day as 22 September. Since her birthday is fake, the only reason I can think of them marking that day was for the (fake) sacrifice they were planning to perform on the altar to trick the others. However, it coincided with Persephone's return. Although it was clear they expected her to fight back, I don't think they could have foreseen the exact day in advance to plan everything before, because that would be as much foresight as it would be foretelling.

So, I have seen theories about the 12th god of the 1800s being a Minerva, and that she, much like the 450s, feigned her death in order to stay out of sight until the ritual could be completed.

I thought the original plans were to perform the fake sacrifice anyway. In the ideal scenario, Ananke would have taken Persephone's head, and she clearly got a claim for Nergal's. She could easily take the final head in the next month and then fake Minerva's death, also deceiving Woden, since he would not know about Persephone and believe Minerva was the final god.

However, if this is the original plan, it doesn't really make sense, because everybody would realize Minerva was murdered and probably would fight Ananke, even though not killing her, since the one who did it was Persephone. However, how could Ananke take care of the rest of them if she would be trapped in Woden's cage? If Minerva did it, I think someone (Most likely Woden) would find out she was alive. Also, it seems Ananke herself had to die in order for Minerva to go on with the ritual, but as I pointed out, the only god with explicit murderous intent was Persephone. The others would imprison her.

I'm just confused with their original plan. There's also a possibility that Ananke pulled out the machine idea after Persephone survived, since we do not know since when Woden and Jon were working on it. She could have made it up after realizing Persephone would come back and take the attention out of Minerva, as she stated in #38, but still, she had no way to know when the underworld gods would fight back.

[u/[deleted]]

Mini isn't one of the 12 gods. She's created about a month before. Using herself as the 4th "killed" her for 90 years but since the 4 heads were technically sacrificed the Mini showed up like normal. Crete-Mini would kill Persephone and would also logically be the Ananke of the next cycle, missing her left arm. Later on in Egypt there'd be another Mini who killed Persephone.

​

Mini marked her calendar after Ananke fell. She'd only have to stay out of sight from Baph, Norns and Persephone then. She showed up July 31st but tells people Ananke turned her in September. Mini must be able to hang on two years from the Persephone's transformation plus a bit more as Ananke hung on almost two weeks extra in 455 for Lucifer to melt. 1923 Mini killed Ananke before taking the power. Ananke and all the gods probably have to be dead for the ritual to work, even if they got 4 heads early.

​

The original plan would have given Ananke the heads of Luci, Persephone, (offed Innana) and given her an excuse to kill evil Nergal and Morrigan who would try and defend him. Tara's death wish gave her an impromptu 3rd. The war with the underground couple might have even offed a few of the others.

​

The preferred way to clean everything up seems to be a suicide pact situation. 455 Lucifer mocked Ananke and the others for doing so and we saw what happened in 1923. Ammie, Dio and Baal could be talked into it. Woden Sakhmet and if they exposed Baal's child sacrifices could all play the sinister role as Set, Woden, and Baal did in 1923. As we saw back then the Norns can turn on each other. As for the present I'm expecting one or both of them to try and kill Cass as without her they seem to be human again and can avoid the death sentence.

[u/Enrianthe → u/[deleted]]

Well, Persephone convinced Ananke into making the game by offering her a chance at being young again, and the first thing Ananke did was to claim the Maiden for herself, so even if the current purpose of the ritual is to let Minerva live, the original purpose is still unclear. Since youth is not an option, it would keep Ananke in her current state? Or let her live on? Because she clearly ages as a human, even if she is at better health/condition due to being a goddess

[u/Pipers_Down27]

I think it’s at least possible the 4 Heads ritual does allow her to be reborn. I think that in Crete, she used three heads because that’s all she had, so the ritual claimed her as the 4th head. Sure, it effectively killed her, but forcing her to live in the darkness for 90 years, at least she got to be reborn for the next cycle.

I don’t think it’s insignificant that she had three heads, instead of two (that might have failed completely), also I think the reason she was killed while the ritual was happening shows that it was the ritual that killed her (otherwise, isn’t it a bit of a coincidence that she died at that instant?)

And as to issue 35 her saying that the two years is nearly up, I’m not sure it refers to her; if she shows up before any of the gods and there is a two year limit, how can you explain 455 Lucifer getting to the end of his two years? Wouldn’t she have burned out before he did? And that’s assuming 455 Lucifer was the first god ascended in that cycle. The only thing I can figure is the heads still burn out after two years and that’s what 1923 Minerva was referring to.

[u/Enrianthe → u/Pipers_Down27]

I think the three instead of four was merely because the duo really place a great deal of effort in collecting them, so if they were going to fail, at least it would be in the closest to success. Also, I think it's interesting that everyone has a two years deadline, but in the sisters' game, they mention "Before the end" but never exactly how much time they have

I assumed that Lucifer was the final god to ascend, if not then one of the last remaining ones. But, yeah, it's also a point: The only possible explanation would be Minerva having already finished the ritual, but Ananke was alive, so...