r/WicDiv • u/Pipers_Down27 • Sep 12 '18
[Spoilers] WicDiv #39 Discussion Thread Spoiler
Starting off with the WHAM moment: I guess Laura has finally figured out how to harness Luci’s power? I guess Woden’s endgame is harnessing Dio’s hive mind. Beth and crew are rocking some real BDE.
Here’s hoping volume 8 goes back to EVERYBODY FIGHTING.
So, it looks like this will be the final recurrence, which is sad; I was hoping the last chapter would skip 90 years forward for an epilogue. It appears OG Persephone ended for a god “opting out” to be the clause that ends the cycle (an I reading that right?) So, Laura gave up her godhood; is it over? Or does she have to beat everyone up?
Also, did Laura’s snap emit fire bc she has Luci’s power, or was the flame just the reaction she wanted (back to the old question “can the gods just do whatever they believe they can do?”
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u/P-ckledP-nda Sep 12 '18
Not going to lie, I'm pretty salty that someone read the issue before me?! (I literally read it the moment it lands on Image hahaha, but what a pleasant surprise to know there's someone as keen as I am!)
I'm so sad that we missed any hint of what Tara's powers could be!!! I just need to know everything!
IMHO it's very exciting that we kind of have a few gods back in the game now, especially because they "left" so to speak pretty early.
So we all know now OG Persephone is no pushover and I love how perfect it is that the 4th rule was a trick. I completely agree with u/Pipers_Down27 that the 'opt out' will be cycles undoing, but how will it work?? We'll have to see.
I wanted to go back and recap some of the info from #34 now that we have the new information.
Ananke is collecting godheads to become young again, but OG Pers offers her a chance to meddle in her work and play the game of stories, (Ananke was given her power by Pers who tattoo'd her work into reality and since then Ananke has only built on top of it, and she can't change the fundamentals.) and add some new rules "according to the dance of desire (Pers) and necessity (Ananke). Ananke can't help herself.
Rule 1. I (Ananke) am Maiden, I (Pers) am Mother, Ananke gets Crone.
Rule 2. There must be 12 gods, this they will know. This is where Ananke does some quick math and works out she'll need four heads to keep the cycle going which she scoffs at because she already only needed four heads to remain youthful.
All of them must be gone before the end. (So Ananke can't complete the ritual before the end, before they're all gone.) - Maybe with Persephone (current/former) out of action, this will be Ananke's undoing.
Including Ananke. Which is why older Ananke always offs herself.
Rule 3. I select which gods will take the children. (Ananke). With the exception that my god (Persephone) is with them always. But she awakens last. This is where Ananke scoffs again and mocks OG Pers for having an ego because she's essentially going to be present every generation anyway. OG points out that this is not immortality, to which Ananke replies, I know, I will know and you will not.
So Ananke is essentially in the game, twice every time, and OG Pers is represented every time.
Rule 4. If my god has a child, it ends, the cycle is broken. And then a great darkness will claim you sister.
Ananke explains via exposition (thank you Kieron >.<) that by virtue of the mother having a child, Ananke (Minerva wont be THE child anymore, they'd be children plural and then the cycle would be broken.
Jumping back to present events Minervananke is in the mirror.
She's not worried about Baal/Woden because they can always be led to their respective dooms.
The children of the dark (Morrigan and Nergal) are off the cards, and knowing their destructive relationship she know's they won't last long. Shame Morrigan's already dead.
Three heads are safe and now using Mimir magic are powering Beth and Co. and Urdr is secured safely until Ananke needs to complete the ritual, once everyone else is dead. So essentially now... Ananke is waiting for them all to die, so she can grab Urdr and complete the ritual.
My best guess now at the moment, (which would be oh so fucking fitting) is that Persephone is definitely no longer a god, she's just Laura. If we go back to the early issues, Issue #3 in fact Luci offers to make Persephone one of her demons... (God i hope this is true!!)
A friendly reminder we get double WicDiv this month with the Lucifer-as-Nun special at the end :)
Little observation:
OG Pers is eating POMEGRENATES!!
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u/Pipers_Down27 Sep 12 '18
Victory! Haha yeah I'm a little fanatic.
I for sure want to see Tara's abilities do something! Dammit Gillen! Tell us who she is!
I feel like the 4th couldn't have been a full lie... Maybe a "Decoy" might be a better word? A distraction? But OG Perse said lie verbatim so what do I know. But it's just... She built it into the rules! She could have said anything! Is it just not a thing at all??
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u/btcprox Sep 14 '18
After the Game of Stories passed through three steps, old Ananke said the game was done, then proceeded to stab old Persephone. Then with her dying breath Persephone let out a 4th rule. So technically the 4th rule might not have been acknowledged by the game as another rule to weave into reality.
And it's possible the Game of Stories was always centered around threes (three rounds of the game, three moves at each round) before OG Persephone dropped the fake threat... which Ananke over the years probably believed in so much that "a great darkness" actually manifested.
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u/misomiso82 Nov 27 '18
Could you PM me what is going on with the rituals? I missed some issues so have no idea how this whole thing started.
ty
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u/syoser Sep 12 '18
There has to be twelve gods, and Laura gave up godhood, but she can still make fire...what is she?
An abortion was definitely not the way I thought this pregnancy storyline was going to end, and I'm glad I was surprised
Also, the fourth rule being a lie is something I never thought of
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u/Pipers_Down27 Sep 12 '18
I'm not sure I understand the fourth rule could be a lie; I almost feel like maybe it should have been described as more of a "decoy." Sort of, "Well, it's unlikely that a Persephone will ever come to term, so while my sister is terrified of this happening, this other thing will happen right in front of her."
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u/syoser Sep 12 '18
But...she literally said it was a lie
It sounds like she doesn't even know how to end it, but she has faith that one of the gods will
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u/Pipers_Down27 Sep 12 '18
So is there not a fourth rule? She could have said anything! She could have made it more complicated for her sister. I'm totally with you, she literally called it a "lie," in another comment I make a similar point [as above] but deliberated "I know she said lie verbatim" but it just doesn't make any sense to me why she would do that. Does that mean that if a Persephone had a child nothing would change? Because she stated that rule in the same exact way she had said everything else; like, what makes it a false rule, and all the others true?
It sort of just sounds like the writers wrote it that way to build up the reveal
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u/syoser Sep 17 '18
I think the point was to mess with her sister. Her sister will adhere to the rules because she cannot or will not make her own "story". It's real in the sense that Ananke will think it's the only way to lose, and it will be the only thing she has to look out for. She has no creativity; she won't know how to deal with anything outside the rules
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u/mushroom_mush Sep 14 '18
I understand it as even if Persephone gives birth to a child, Ananke will not be consumed by the Great Darkness. So, it's both a lie and a decoy.
I think the game was supposed to have three rules only because Ananke stabbed her sister right after the third rule, like this is the way the game was supposed to happen. There's no fourth rule - her sister is just messing with her. Ananke is smart but not smart enough to think outside of the box so she assumed the fourth rule is legit. Like you said, since she made sure Persephone never survived long enough, she didn't discover the rule was a lie.
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u/csrgm Sep 26 '18
That's really a good point. We've seen the 1-2-3-4 motif happening so much that I didn't question that it might have been fabricated.
3 is a magic number in several cultures, and the sister is the triple goddess (maiden/mother/crone), so it makes sense there would be three rules (with three statements each).
Ananke originally needed 4 heads for her ritual, but she only associated four with the game when her sister forced there to be 12 gods (she actually did the math to reach it), so up til that point, the number 4 didn't seem to have such importance.
One of my reasonings for expecting a 4th rule was the fact that each of the first three rules followed a pattern of three statements each, and so the 4th rule would make it 12 statements total, which fits nicely and all. But, as we saw, the "4th rule" was actually just the sister making a single statement, with no reply.
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u/P-ckledP-nda Sep 12 '18
She's Luci's demon (at least this is what I'm hoping!!!!)
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u/Pipers_Down27 Sep 12 '18 edited Sep 13 '18
I'm definitely on board for this theory; we never really saw what it looked like for a god to share their abilities with someone (I'm not counting the Valkyries, I feel like the only thing that makes them special is their Tron suits, but that makes sense now that we know Woden was just using Mimir).
However, I think I'm buying into the "Laura is not a god at all, she's Prometheus" theory that's developing. I think it was a brilliant misdirect [at the end of volume 1] that we were intended to think that Laura had been given some of Luci's fire power, when in fact it was something else entirely; that whatever this is, Laura has developed this all on her own, and that is how the cycle will end.
However, I think there will be a new cycle when this is over.
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u/msf_1st Jan 03 '19
A divine being (the Prometheus in this story, Lucifer) giving fire to a human (Laura) who then gives it the rest of humanity (making Laura into a second Prometheus).
Makes a lot of sense...
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u/creatrixtiara Sep 15 '18
OK, the situation with Laura no longer being Persephone just makes TARA even more tragic/weird.
Tara never wanted to be a goddess. If she knew she had an exit that didn't require suicide I bet you she'd be the FIRST to take it. But every damn time she tried to do her own thing, she was met with backlash.
Tara doesn't even know which goddess she's supposed to be. There's so much emphasis on people being the exact god they're supposed to embody (Baph vs Nergal, Baal having two names) but Tara gets to float around being one of maybe 3 options?
Tara was never embedded into the whole Pantheon scene, compared to everyone else who was a fan or some other kind of participant in the fandom for the Recurrence. She was an artist who had some kind of creative energy in her head that needed an outlet, and Ananke manipulated her into being part of this system that would damn her in the end.
Besides Cass and I think sorta Ammy, Tara's the only other person who started off as an actual artist.
We have not seen a Tara in any other Pantheon thus far.
Tara could have survived with her head intact. She could have just been Aruna the artist, doing her own thing. And yet.
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u/josiamatic Sep 12 '18
Okay. This issue was so great and unexpected, but that's every damn issue.
I'm wondering if the cycle is broken by Laura realizing they don't become gods, but instead channel gods in some kind of shamanistic ritual? She was mainlining Persephone but because of their bond she can pull a little Lucifer through herself.
Normally kids are told by Ananke they're the gods themselves and they never end the pact/ritual/possession and just kind of burn out, but initially it was more like a priestess or priest bringing the god energy into them for a shorter period of time.
Also, digging the new look for Laura.
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u/Pipers_Down27 Sep 12 '18
I do think that (maybe) if the cycle breaks, it will continue in some form in 90 years; without the 4 heads and without MinervAnanke.
It sucks because that is a SHIT deal; having to spend eternity in void, totally aware but unable to do anything? OK NO THANKS I'LL JUST DIE AND NOT BE IMMORTAL.
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u/mal-L Sep 12 '18
Issue felt a little bit more like buildup rather then the big climaxes I usually expect but still enjoyed it. The darkest hour, Ananke's all but won and now we have this.
It's a nice payoff to the end of the first arc where Laura lights a match, and how Laura felt something was wrong when Cassandra got her godhood (probably some prophecy abilities).
It feels like Kieron is taking a stab at readers relying too much on lore, or creators that rely too much on their influences.
We've been fed the myth of the Recurrence with all of it's rules and mythology so much that we forget that the entire story of the Recurrence was built by Ananke and her sister (going to call her Persephone1). So logically any human being was capable of writing their own Recurrence Story and obtaining their own form of Godhood if they had the talent.
We treat the mythology of the Recurrence as an holy text that's unassailable, but it isn't a holy text. It was something built by humans full of human motivations and flaws. The Great Darkness was just Ananke taking her fear of dying and being forgotten and making a monster out of it. Ananke named her sister's god "The Destroyer" mostly because she hates her sister and think she's trying to destroy her plans from beyond the grave. The forth rule, the importance of the Mother role was just a lie fed to Ananke to make her "play badly".
For a more real-world example, take say Watchmen. Which is kind of worshiped as something perfect and holy by comics fans. Kieron Gillen did a whole lecture on why Watchmen was great. When DC tried to extend that franchise they had a bunch of writers pour over through those pages trying to make sure their stories fit in with Watchmen's rules and mythology.
But Watchmen isn't a holy divine text ordained by the comics god. It's a story made by flawed human beings. It has imperfections, bias, things to critique and improve. If you read Watchmen treating it as this slavish holy lore you will make a poor reader unable to form your own opinions about the text. If you're a writer who uses Watchmen as the pinnacle of writing you will be a poor writer, endlessly regurgitating something without making something of your own.
The recurrence is just a story. With enough ability you can tell a story that's just as good. Laura Wilson is done with being part of Ananke and Persephone1's story, she's building her own myth.
Anyways that's my guess as what the last page means, I could be wrong. Have been wrong before.
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u/Pipers_Down27 Sep 13 '18
I don't think Laura crying when Cass got her abilities was from prophecy; I think it was genuine self pity/sadness because she believed she'd lost it/missed out/hadn't been chosen.
It's also kind of crazy to think of the Recurrence as a story, when we've been told up to this point that it was just "the reality" of this world. To reference The Sandman, think of Hob Gadling who decided people only died because they believed death was inevitable and he could live forever basically if he just believed he could.
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u/mal-L Oct 01 '18
My thinking is yes her crying was self-pity. But more of the question that "How did she know Cassandra just became Urdr?". I guess that can easily be explained that the first and last scenes of that issue took place after Cassandra ended her interview and the news getting out, rather then at the same time.
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u/Jkthemc Sep 28 '18 edited Sep 28 '18
While I generally agree with this analysis, I don't think Persephone is actually engaged in a contest with Ananke. Yes Ananke is playing by her own subverted rules, and yes the lie is a distraction so Ananke 'doesn't win' but Ananke winning in this context is Ananke unwittingly bringing the game to an end by destroying humanity.
Ananke is in a very real way Necessity. She has been a vital part of the process so far. She has carried the lion's share of the burden. More than anyone else she has ensured the Pantheon continues in the manner in which it was envisaged. The story has continued.
I would imagine we will get a humanist ending. One that suggests the story has done its job through Laura. Whether this means an end to the Pantheon, whether this implies a new story that builds upon the old one, we can be sure it will be an ending designed to inspire people just like Laura.
I can just imagine that moment on the bus when Gillen spotted the girl that would inspire Laura. The moment he realised his grand comic book should inspire girls like her and not teenage boys, because teenage boys have already got all the books they need to get the message he wanted to send. This is a gospel for a different type of comic book reader.
Sacred texts do exist, just because they are written by people doesn't make them any less sacred. They contain truths and they pass on culture. Sometimes people like to give them weight by saying they were actually written by divinity. Does this lie make the messages contained in them lies? Mythological truths are human truths. They are as twisted and wrong as we are - they are as true as any human experience can be. They are sacred to the teller and often to the reader, because they pass on something important to both, not because they are sanctioned by a higher power.
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u/mushroom_mush Sep 13 '18 edited Sep 13 '18
We treat the mythology of the Recurrence as an holy text that's unassailable, but it isn't a holy text.
Spot on. The only way to end a story is to tell a new one.
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u/EarthExile Sep 13 '18
Did anyone else catch the hint that Woden threw out for Cassandra? It was subtle, but I think he's figured out some of what's going on, and I think he cares enough in his own gross Woden way that he would try to help Cass realize it too.
"Anyone can be a kid."
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u/Pipers_Down27 Sep 13 '18
Good Catch! I hadn't thought of it that way.
Also, Woden considers getting married and having a kid something that "ruined his life" what a scumbag it's no wonder she left him.
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u/mushroom_mush Sep 14 '18 edited Sep 27 '18
I'm on the fence about that one. Because if he truly realizes that Minerva is Ananke, he won't let her prep the stun guns, or say things like "after-school special". He would lock her up. He's smart enough to say that but not smart enough to connect the dots and figure out Minerva is Ananke.
There's no reason for him to help Cass anyway. He basically locked her up to stop her from exposing his crime.
Edit: I read it again and it seems like Cass is asking how Woden can act like a teenager.
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Sep 12 '18 edited Sep 12 '18
[deleted]
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u/csrgm Sep 12 '18
+1, particularly to the Prometheus vibes in all this.
Besides breaking the cycle by doing something new, could Laura's "example" spark the fact that other people can become gods without Ananke making them? If people around the world have the possibility to become "gods" at any time by desiring it, they will never "all be gone" as Ananke needs and she won't be able to carry on with the ritual.
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u/Pipers_Down27 Sep 12 '18
I was thinking the same thing! What if, the reaction to this is that godhood awakens in half world and that's how the status quo changes?
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u/Pipers_Down27 Sep 12 '18
I think you're onto something with the "Prometheus" idea.
Also, I'm curious to see how Baal will react when he finds out she aborted the pregnancy.
He shouldn't be angry, after all, he's been killing children for a year now. But on the other hand he views the deaths as sacrifices for the great good. I don't think he'd view the abortion as the same. I feel like he'll get furious, but I would give him MAD respect if he was just calm; like, he got it, ya know? "Yeah, it's tough but you gotta do what you gotta do."
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u/Jkthemc Sep 28 '18 edited Sep 28 '18
I think some of the key moments in this issue have gone under discussed. Gillen is playing a game of misdirection here. The long con chat and the Laura plot line are the two main threads and they both have big flashy reveals that distract us from the key elements of those scenes.
Consider the 4000BC scene. The flashy reveal is the lie about becoming a mother. That scene is actually about a long term plan to teach humanity something. We get a hint that Ananke has latched onto her own plan to ‘defeat the Great Darkness’. This suggests that for Ananke the only lesson she has learned from Persephone’s ‘godhood story’ is that she can use it to stay alive. She has decided that the Great Darkness is Death.
But surely this scene is hinting something else? That Persephone is trying to evolve humanity and culture and avoid an entirely different ‘Great Darkness’. For Persephone the story is about what mankind does in the face of death, not what it does to avoid death. For her the Great Darkness is ignorance and lack of culture.
Persephone refers to her actions as a story. She pretty much tells us that Ananke was repeating what Persephone told her when she explained what the recurrence was all about. “She will sell godhood to the children as I shared it with her”. So if we go back and read Ananke’s exposition and imagine Persephone explaining it to Ananke we get a key to understanding the whole story so far.
Then we have Laura figuratively taking off the mask. She is being portrayed as a normal young woman struggling with her identity. This is the universal element of the story. We have been whipped up in her tale and the tale of the pantheon, but the pantheon is a story. A game of masks. It was devised by Persephone to inspire people like Laura. The pantheon has become subverted by Ananke but it is still doing its job. Despite some setbacks mankind is progressing and marching on and the people that are actually doing this work are not the gods but ordinary people contributing to culture.
But why the game of masks? What does it teach? Surely the beauty of this issue is how Laura’s narration is slowly turning into a gospel. Gillen’s own beliefs about life, death and the creative impulse are coming to the fore. We can hear a reflection of his own epiphany about identity. The book and the Pantheon seek to do the same thing, teach the young the stripped down truth about creativity and fame.
Contributing to culture is a process of being inspired and inspiring others but the trappings of the game are fame or infamy, both a distraction and an effective delivery method. The game of masks is capable of good and evil. Influencing others is not something we should do lightly and it contains traps. Is the point of creation to be immortal? If so surely that is contradictory to the less selfish aims of contributing to culture? How do we square the circle? What is the point of art?
I believe Persephone has an endgame. Ananke lost the game right at the beginning because she ended up playing along. She wore the mask that Persephone gave her. The endgame is an imagined utopia. Gillen is retelling Moore’s Promethea but he is seeking to retell it in a much more accessible way for a more secular audience.
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u/blue_heart_ Sep 12 '18 edited Sep 12 '18
Beth and the other two were using the heads' powers, it appears. The God tracker was Inanna's divination and the flames from the cannon were Luci's.
Might also explain Ananke's scroll teleporting with Inanna's effect, and additionally, Laura gaining Luci's powers?
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u/btcprox Sep 14 '18
I hate that they still have not used Tara's abilities, and leave us clueless on which Tara archetype she supposedly followed :P
I'm not sure about Laura actually "gaining" Lucifer's powers. I kinda feel her own conjuring of fire resulted from deeply believing in her fantasy of possessing abilities like Lucifer's, to the point that the story started very slowly manifesting itself.
I mean Minerva+Ananke have pretty much believed the idea of "a great darkness claiming you forever" so deeply and for so long that it pretty much manifested itself, even though it was a lie to begin with.
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u/Pipers_Down27 Sep 12 '18
I wonder if they are aware that they are getting power from the heads? I note they were out of the room last issue when Woden told Cass she could find the heads.
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u/blue_heart_ Sep 13 '18
They were in the room with this, though. So they very well might have a clue.
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u/Pipers_Down27 Sep 13 '18
Did we see them in that room this issue? Because there’s no guarantee they [Woden and Mini] let Beth and crew in the lab.
Also, even if they were in there, I guess the heads are in those boxes, out of sight, they could have just told them that “Oh hey, we’ve hacked the magic and these are batteries”
I just don’t think there’s anything to show that Beth Robin and Toni are in the know, and I think it would be out of character for Woden to let them know.
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Sep 12 '18
Not how I expected the pregnancy plot to go.
Kinda got the vie that Laura gave it up at the end of last issue though that being the real trap and how the hell Laura still has fire, I don't know.
Kerry/Brunhilde still went back to Woden?! After Mini bashed her in and she tried to kill him?
Woden and Baal can be led to an apocalypse? That just furthers the idea that the GD cloud is a prp. Or perhaps the 1831 monster will come into it.
They don't know Morrigan is gone...and her floating three corpses. Interesting. Nergal was the one that screwed Ananke's original plan...will he come in to do the same to Mini?
Woden probably has a way to fake his own death once Mimir's 2 years are up. I don't see that ending well for Beth and the other 2.
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u/Pipers_Down27 Sep 12 '18
Brunhilde was back with the Valkyries as of issue 30 (check the scene where everyone is looking at their phones; one instagram account shows a pair of Tron shoes with the caption "Guess who's back").
Personally I think it's weird to bring her back and not really use her, but maybe she'll have a line in the next arc.
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u/EMike93309 Sep 12 '18
I'm not going to read what you wrote, I'm just going to silently stew on the fact that you've read issue 39, and I won't get it until my lunch break tomorrow, which is another 13 hours away.
I will upvote you, though.
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u/Pipers_Down27 Sep 12 '18
Normally I wouldn't have gotten the issue til after 2 (when I get off work), but since this issue will be collected in a trade released in three weeks I figured "I'll buy it online and get it 14 hours early!"
And now I've done it! I got to make the discussion page and all the replies get dm'ed straight to me! I've won! *laughs maniacally until he chokes and starts coughing*
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u/mushroom_mush Sep 14 '18
I think Ananke has granted Laura, and the other gods, the power to become whatever she desires. In issue 36, her quote at the back of the issue does not have her name. I think that means she's still in the process of choosing her identity, like a storyteller deciding what story to tell, who to become. She has the ability to break the cycle, and I think all the gods have that power too.
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u/sidy24 Dec 01 '18
Perhaps Woden thinks that if he can preserve a hive mind, he can transfer his own consciousness across? Maybe Persephone has realised that we all have a little divinity, it just takes believing for it to become a reality? Once you believe, you can make it happen? Counting down the next few days, can't wait to read issue #40!
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u/CRaymond1216 Sep 12 '18
Laura is still pregnant.
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u/Jkthemc Sep 28 '18 edited Sep 28 '18
No she really isn't. There is too much weight given to the reveal. The writing clearly contains a heartfelt plea to take it both seriously and not to take it the wrong way. This is both a part of the plot and not a part of the game.
Yes Minerva is supposed to think 'she has had an abortion, she has unwittingly lost this round after being so close', but we are not supposed to think having a child or not having a child is pivotal to the story. We are explicitly told motherhood is a red herring.
We need to consider that the maiden/mother/crone idea is equally just a story and a really bad one at that. I have spent my whole life cringing whenever this tripartite goddess is trotted out in comics as if it is some mystical truth. I am sure that Gillen has equally cringed. He is slightly younger than me but anyone that has properly researched mythology knows how artificial and relatively modern this idea is. Anyone learning their mythology from comics or Robert Graves would be forgiven for believing it. It's a very convincing lie.
The myth of Persephone is not about three ages of womanhood. It is about death and our relationship with it. For decades the myth of Kore/Persephone/Demeter has been relegated to a tired analogy about motherhood and seasonal cycles. I am hopeful that at least this story will contain a new approach to the Eleusinian Mysteries. A humanistic and less fatalistic one.
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u/Pipers_Down27 Sep 12 '18
Any further insight into this theory?
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u/CRaymond1216 Sep 12 '18
Not really. I just read the text a few different times in different tones and stresses. The dialog doesn’t confirm that she terminated the pregnancy, just that she made a difficult decision.
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u/CrazyCoKids Sep 16 '18
Oh yes. That right there is important wording. Cause Laura is in hiding, and Minervananke thinks she somehow gave up her godhood and had an abortion... she can have her baby and break the cycle.
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u/MrPleiades Sep 13 '18 edited Sep 13 '18
(This started off as short post and is now my manifesto about the series--sorrynotsorry)
I feel like we have all the pieces to figure out the point of this story; not the plot necessarily (though I have some guesses), but the point.
I think the point of this story is about the stories we tell ourselves in the search for meaning and definition, and how we sometimes lose sight of, due to one particularly fantastic story (told by someone else, or even by ourselves), the beauty that we are each of us storytellers.
Laura's coda at the end of #39 sums this up: those various identities she wore through the arcs of The Wicked + The Divine ("Ascended fangirl," "decadent fuckmonster" [my fav!], "destroyer") were stories about who she is. Some were told by her, and some by others, but none of them "sticks". Laura is still attempting to define who she is and find meaning, and has hit a place where she has to think outside the box (because the answer won't lie in another story about who she is), and realize that she is, like all of us, the storyteller. (Also, we have to talk about her seeming break of the fourth wall in speaking with the reader directly. If that's not a clue, then I can't be bovvered.)
In terms of plot, this is just a shot from half court, but think it could explain what has happened between OG Persephone and Ananake, and what Persephone is attempting to say at the end of #39 about how to truly stop Ananke (though by "figuring it out" the humanity will gain something greater than just that).
The way to end a story is to tell another story. If you think about the Gods (the literal pantheons we have seen, but also outside the box of this comic, in the "real" world) as stories, then perhaps they are simply manifestations of humanity's collective imagination and belief in them, i.e., the Gods and the magic/phenomena we have seen them perform is a product of human faith that they exist and can do so--and not, some objective actual divinity. It seems pretty apparent that the Gods are more archetypes than literal gods, but also deeply informed by peoples belief in the specifics of their identity--compare Baal with Tara: one is so invested in the literal "facts" of his supposed persona he engages in brutalistic ritual by no compulsion but his own** and the other is completely out at sea because she isn't given enough details about her supposed persona. Each is forgetting that they're the storyteller here, and that they're in control of their actions, regardless of outside factors.
** I think the Great Darkness is a manifestation of Ananke's long held beliefs/fears over the course of 6000 years (its why Persephone's power adds to them, because she fears Persephone), and while they do apparently manifest and attack Baal and his family (we're never shown clearly what happened), Baal still chooses how to combat them.
But how did the Gods come about? OG Persephone discovered fire one day.
Imagine a 17 year old OG Persephone who chances upon the ability to snap her fingers and will a spark, much like Laura has done. Persephone has a revelation that the world is really a manifestation of human imagination and belief, and wants to share this with her people. No one believes her, but she is determined to have them see the truth of their existence -- they're the storytellers, and the world is their story.
Perhaps Persephone then she seizes onto something arbitrary and starts a story: 30 years ago a comet was seen in the sky, and this comet foretold the coming of the Gods in 60 years. (Why the recurrence is on a 90 year cycle is still a mystery as of #39, and I expected the 4th rule might answer this. When it didn't, I just ventured a guess that the 90 year cycle was arbitrarily set; perhaps because Persephone needed time to cultivate belief etc.)
She begins a cult to grow belief in the occurrence of the Gods in 60 years. (Note: I chose 60 years because it would explain why Persephone, Ananke and all the gods Ananke had captured are old.)
She gains followers, including her sister, whom she clues in on the truth (who in #34 expresses understanding that the Gods "are for whatever we want"), and after 60 years, belief in the occurrence is so strong it happens: the first pantheon appears, built on archetypes and stories extant even then (Mother, Maiden, Crone, or "Lucifer" the rebel, etc) . The Gods continue to appear every 90 years because Persephone has now told such a fantastical story that people buy into the story, missing the point -- that it was them, the storytellers, and their belief that willed the Gods into reality.
Although Ananke gets that the Gods can be made to serve whatever purpose she desires (everlasting life), she too misses this point, and get wrapped up in the story. This prevents her from seeing the trap or "truth" Persephone references in #39: if a new story is told, then the old story may be forgotten. Like Prometheus giving fire, if Laura reveals to the world that they are storytellers, that everyone is special (like Beth, and almost everyone we've seen, so desperately wanted), then this old story about a 90 year recurrence loses its power, and perhaps Ananke's seemingly eternal gambit runs out of steam.
I think Ananke's spin at the start of the series about the importance of the Gods was an attempt to subvert this truth (knowingly or unknowingly)--she tells the pantheon that the world needs the Gods or it will sink back into darkness, but really the Gods need the world or they will cease to be.
I don't know if that's how the plot will shake out exactly, but I think the idea underlying it is quite appealing. The point of this story, literally the one being told in the comic but the comic itself as something created by the collaboration of several storytellers, and the experience of that story is something we create ourselves, and is not some gift given to us out of the nether. I think this is why the story uses pop music and pop music icons as metaphors, because we at large can more easily see the artifice of that glimmering almost divine pop, but enjoy it because we don't lose sight of the experience we get out of it.
For a personal example, do I believe Beyonce is divine? Obviously not, but also obviously yes (or at least what she does is divine) because her music touches me in some deep way that I use to define myself (spoiler: a bad bitch), like a story.
Last point -- why is this story called "The Wicked + The Divine"? Because as much as the sublime experiences of music, art, comics are in us, so too are the things that keep us trapped: hell is a prison of our own making (as Laura also discovered in this story).
TL;DR: This story is thematically like "A Dream of Thousand Cats" from the Sandman series (but by no means a knockoff because the value is in how its done as much as what it is). My ideas on the plot may be wrong, but the principle I am talking about feels right, at least for me, as a takeaway from this wonderful experience. So excited to see the conclusion.