How The Pantheon was born

Metrobius · Post by **Metrobius** » Sun Dec 02, 2001 9:39 am

I was recently asked this in an email, and I thought I'd stow my answer here for safe keeping in case I need it again. <IMG SRC="http://www.keenspace.com/forums/wink.gif">"Where did you get the idea for your comic?"LOL!
First and foremost from my fondness for bad guys with dark hair and goatee beards (as it says in the cast pages). I've always liked those dark, evil sort of characters, hence my sympathy towards Satan.
"Good Omens" by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman has a big influence on it: I liked the character of Crowley, who was a demon and obviously a demon, but still one of the good guys. Again as it says in the cast pages (or it should), my Satan has feathery wings because Crowley in "Good Omens" does and I was terribly disappointed that they only appeared very briefly at the end.
So Satan's wings are always there.
I was also disappointed with Good Omens in that we never actually *saw* Satan and that it sort of copped out on the subject of God at the end: "Well, he is ineffable, maybe he planned the whole thing." BAH!
So in a way it was an attempt to rise to the heights of Goos Omens (the greatest book ever written) and surpass them.
Also, my fondness for gods in general - gloriously lazy, self-centred immortal beings with altogether too much time on their hands who have a lot of sex. I wanted to write about them. And also, as Thoth says in a future episode: "To protest against the monopoly the Christian cosmos has over other belief systems."
It began with the first episode, as many of my episodes do with the question: What if X met Y?
The characters in question were Pan and Satan who are very similar in appearance, giving Satan a reason to want to meet Pan - "Who is that guy that looks like me? *Why* does he?"
And so we began.
As to why Satan is gay - one, I don't like my evil villains being interested in women, because it gives them a weak point.
Two, because he's a downtrodden misunderstood minority and the victim of God's patriarchal propaganda *anyway*, so it just makes sense.
I think the writers of South Park figured this out, because their Satan is gay too, though I didn't know this when I came up with the Pantheon.Ummm...
There are a couple of stories at the bottom of the Blue Page which are early explorations of Satan's character. "Jesus in Conversation" has poor ole Jesus in it, too, who is rather disillusioned at his lot in life. The Pantheon grew out of these in a way. Blame "Sinking into the Abyss" if you like, for starting it all. <A HREF="http://pantheon.keenspace.com/other.html" TARGET=_blank>http://pantheon.keenspace.com/other.html</A> I guess really the webcomic's attempting to answer the question of what Satan is really like and to find out why he does what he does. Oh, and to explore the concept of the world as a place where hundreds of belief systems overlap where humans fight holy wars over what god said what to whom in what year while the gods themselves sit back, sip their wine and speculate on who they're going to invite to the next Gods' and High Priests' Ball.I think that's about it <IMG SRC="http://www.keenspace.com/forums/wink.gif">

Joost · Post by **Joost** » Wed Dec 05, 2001 4:33 am

You're totally ignoring the significant impact Berryl's had on all this

Seriously, HAPPY BIRTHDAY! A whole year...my my how time flies <IMG SRC="http://www.keenspace.com/forums/smile.gif">

Metrobius · Post by **Metrobius** » Wed Dec 05, 2001 5:01 am

Oh yes, - Beryl.
Well, she's a sheep o' war in her other life, a ferocious and noble beast, scourge of Black Knights everywhere..
But she's quite sweet and docile when she's the companion of Jesus, as befits the Lamb of God.Timmerryn
*Pantheon blows out its candle* <IMG SRC="http://www.keenspace.com/forums/wink.gif">

Loki · Post by **Loki** » Wed Dec 05, 2001 8:16 am

Happy Birthday from me too! I love the poster - it has Satan and a nymph in the same place! (I *like* being bi, I can appreciate everyone <IMG SRC="http://www.keenspace.com/forums/smile.gif"> )

Sinnerdragon · Post by **Sinnerdragon** » Thu Dec 06, 2001 7:42 am

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!
I've a bottle of Martini, let's party! (hope you have some olives).
here, 'Good Omens' have never been published. Terry Pratchett has been published since 1990 or so, then... nothing (sob!). I'll try to read it in english. I'm eager to see that Crowley...LET'S PARTY!!

Metrobius · Post by **Metrobius** » Thu Dec 06, 2001 11:08 am

WHEEE!
Thanks, guys!Loki - glad you like the poster and all my characters! <IMG SRC="http://www.keenspace.com/forums/wink.gif">And Gilda, if you need help with the English Good Omens, just ask <IMG SRC="http://www.keenspace.com/forums/smile.gif">*drinks martini, throws olives around..*
<IMG SRC="http://www.keenspace.com/forums/tongue.gif">

ChastMastr · Post by **ChastMastr** » Tue Mar 26, 2002 9:53 am

Yes, what has become of Beryl, anyway?

Minnie · Post by **Minnie** » Wed Mar 27, 2002 1:07 am

What does she think of Jesus's leather. Tell us, so I can immortalise it in rather bad poetry..

Metrobius · Post by **Metrobius** » Wed Mar 27, 2002 5:03 am

Beryl lives in Arcadia, hence she's not in heaven with Jesus.
As for what she's up to these days, why she's playing a starring role in Shakespeare's "The Satyr and the Shepherd", remember?

I don't know if Beryl would care about what Jesus wears, or even notice. Clothing isn't high on the interest agaenda to animals.

Minnie · Post by **Minnie** » Thu Mar 28, 2002 3:18 am

I suppose so.
Though I *was* thinking of her Symbolic Believers in Christianity that Follow Jesus Happily capacity, as opposed to her Arcadian Sheep of War in Shakespeare's Play capacity.

Symbolism: you can run from Highschool English but you can't hide...

Metrobius · Post by **Metrobius** » Sat Apr 06, 2002 4:47 am

Hehehe!

Beryl may think what she will, I think.

Jay042 · Post by **Jay042** » Sun Dec 22, 2002 8:04 pm

On the subject of symbolism, wouldn't the unicorn that has come into the story be a symbol of pagan conversion? After all, Jesus was given the unicorn by Artemis, and there is some conflict between Beyrl and the Unicorn (symbolizing the struggle the faithful and the converts who bring in their own traditions)

Metrobius · Post by **Metrobius** » Tue Dec 24, 2002 4:00 am

By golly, that will teach me to open my big mouth about symbolism!

Unicorns are actually a feature of early Christian art - you get paintings where the Virgin Mary holds a unicorn by the horn and sometimes Jesus even sacrifices it.

I guess the idea is that they're sacrificing something ultimately pure to God.

But I won't deny that the Adam v Beryl thing is a reference to conflicts between different Christian denominations. This is of course why Jesus laments that "The people that love me the most always end up kicking five kinds of shit out of each other.."

Poor Jesus just wants everyone to like each other.

Phred · Post by **Phred** » Thu Jan 09, 2003 4:14 am

Metrobius wrote:I don't like my evil villains being interested in women, because it gives them a weak point.

... Just as well Satan didn't work for the secret service or the armed forces, then...

Metrobius · Post by **Metrobius** » Thu Jan 09, 2003 10:12 pm

"In the Navy,
It's how Hornblower got his name,
In the Navy..."

Phred · Post by **Phred** » Thu Jan 09, 2003 11:45 pm

Metrobius wrote:"In the Navy,
It's how Hornblower got his name,
In the Navy..."

... Blowing horns, presumably.

(Lucky bastard...!)

Metrobius · Post by **Metrobius** » Sun Jan 12, 2003 5:33 am

That was one of the Veggies' funnier musical sledges.

Alas, they've retired from service on Triple M and so all their musical sledges are gone from the website.

*sigh*

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