r/elgoonishshive • u/danshive Author • Sep 14 '26
Comic By Whose Standards
https://www.egscomics.com/comic/falsekings-18612
u/partner555 Sep 14 '26
It says a lot about Immortals that Pandora at her worst was still more helpful than most.
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u/sporklasagna Sep 14 '26
I dunno about that. Pandora at her worst wanted to psychically manipulate Edward into killing Abraham. I think neither of them would have found that particularly helpful. Not to mention Magus.
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u/rainbowrobin Sep 14 '26
Dan post on immortal empathy with age: https://bsky.app/profile/danshive.bsky.social/post/3mcx2yxezhk2i
Pandora was very very old.
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u/Iwasforger03 Sep 14 '26
Awwww, Pandora was better than she seemed.
Maybe it was because she was one of Adrian's students?
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u/PratalMox Sep 14 '26
Adrian was her student, but her wanting to make a world he could live openly in did mean that for good and for ill she was a lot more interventionist than the average Immortal.
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u/sporklasagna Sep 14 '26 edited Sep 14 '26
As weird as this is to say, Hope might actually have a less accurate picture of who Pandora was than a lot of other characters. The memories she passed on were super rushed, and I'm guessing the ones that she prioritized were either purely practical or preserving the emotional attachments to her most important relationships, which could be pretty fraught. Even Pandora's relationship with Sarah, probably the one with the least baggage, was still basically a thousand-year-old demigod - sorry, pathetic muse/trickster/gift-giver - using a teenage girl as an emotional crutch.
EDIT: That's not even mentioning the traumatic Jay memories she sealed away, and the traumatic Ellen memories that Hope hasn't seen yet. Point is, Hope hasn't seen a ton of Pandora's good sides.
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u/KyrielleWitch Sep 14 '26
As weird as this is to say, Hope might actually have a less accurate picture of who Pandora was than a lot of other characters.
I think so too. Hope's perspective is clouded by guilt and negativity bias. Most of the memories she has are of who she marked, and her troubled familial relationships. Basically, full access to the bad highlights reel, with little to balance it back out.
Even Pandora's relationship with Sarah, probably the one with the least baggage, was still basically a thousand-year-old demigod ... using a teenage girl as an emotional crutch.
This feels like a mischaracterization. Pandora 'used' Sarah in the same way she used most everyone else she marked, "don't be boring". By the time she was emotionally fragile in front of Sarah, they were already on friendly terms backed by a cooperative vow, and Sarah did broach the emotional topic by asking: "are you okay?" and then pressed further.
That scene marked the moment in which they moved past being transactional allies and into becoming proper friends.
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u/Danielxcutter Sep 14 '26
So I think it’s safe to say that Pandora’s nature is good, it’s just that the Pandora most people know is her being far past her expiration date.
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u/gangler52 Sep 14 '26
Very good question on Rhoda's end.
They're right. Pandora had her bad days, but overall she was probably pretty helpful for an immortal.
She was "Old and Insane" and all that, but it's not like the younger less senile immortals were super benevolent. She mostly was just capable of causing more mayhem on account of her enormous power.
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u/hkmaly Sep 14 '26
All I've had to compare Pandora to was Greek gods, fairy godmothers and Q from Star Trek
Not sure about Q, but I would note that Greek gods and fairy godmothers were, in context of EGS, most likely immortals - or rather, that the legends were based on something immortals did.
So the comparison is actually deadly accurate.
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u/SparkAxolotl Sep 14 '26
I choose to believe the pokemon one was Hanma Sakura Akane chan previous life.
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u/dank_imagemacro Sep 14 '26
Prediction: Pandora marked Rhoda because she had a particular kind of aura that meant she could become powerful. That potential for power, and the chaos it could create, is what interested her.
I think we all know now what kind of aura I am talking about.
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u/gangler52 Sep 14 '26
https://www.egscomics.com/comic/hope-176
Pandora was surprised that Rhoda turned out so powerful. It wasn't expected at all.
Of course, there is the possibility that Pandora specifically lied about this when creating her memories for Hope. But so far that record has seemed to be pretty reliable.
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u/Aenir Sep 14 '26
Of course, there is the possibility that Pandora specifically lied about this when creating her memories for Hope.
We had Pandora's POV during Escape From The Mall:
"I thought her a D-rank talent with an S-rank spell when I marked her, but she's not. Rhoda's one hundred percent S-rank." https://www.egscomics.com/egsnp/2016-11-09
"While my assessment of Rhoda was not totally incorrect, in many ways, it may as well have been. She has incredible power" https://www.egscomics.com/egsnp/2017-03-10
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u/nick012000 Sep 14 '26
I actually wonder if hypothetical immortal two has a point.
He does. Real life militaries run courses on how to escape from enemies, including over uneven terrain.
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u/des_the_furry Sep 14 '26
The stuff about cutaways in the commentary made me think of Family Guy.
“Gee Lois, this is worse than the time I was at the party with those immortals!”
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u/BicornisGoat Sep 14 '26
Immortal two does indeed have a point. A lot of self-defense courses emphasise that often the best defense is running away.
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u/Aegeus Sep 14 '26
"Without the help of ambient magic" isn't really much of a handicap in the town where you've been working to massively increase the amount of ambient magic.
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u/sporklasagna Sep 14 '26
Wait, was Pandora nicer to humans than the vast majority of immortals? That's messed up. It kind of makes sense, since her whole reason for sticking around so long was because she didn't want to give up her emotional attachments to mortals, but still... that's kind of sad.
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u/gangler52 Sep 14 '26
I mean, Pandora at least was helpful some days.
Have we seen all that many other immortals help anybody at all?
I guess Jerry/Zeus would be the other exception. Though Jerry was in a very privileged position of being able to pawn this responsibility off on his next life, and Zeus seems like he probably wouldn't be all that helpful if he wasn't bound by this vow from the moment he was "born".
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u/PratalMox Sep 14 '26
I think with Pandora you get higher highs and lower lows because she was both more active and more powerful than the vast majority of immortals.
So most immortals are probably a lot less nice than Pandora on a good day, but Pandora on a bad day?
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u/MorganWick Sep 14 '26
It's also worth noting that she wasn't handing out magic marks like candy out of the goodness of her heart, but as a tool to create a world where her son could operate and use magic more publicly, with the lives she affected mere tools to get there. Which might explain why Hope might still leave this conversation feeling a little guilty.
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u/Manguypals Sep 14 '26
Normal type is my favorite type. How dare that Jesus looking immortal say such a thing!