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I was honestly kind of suprised that Angelo tried to help Lisa, I was fully expecting him to turn her in. Lisa’s backstory so far has been just totally devastating. I didn’t write anything about last chapter, but the panel of her cowering while she’s lectured about “women’s role,” and the man who’s attacked her is still trying to coerce her into sleeping with her was truly just awful. And then both in that chapter and this, but Imuri undervaluing their relationship, which for Lisa is clearly the only even halfway pleasant thing in her life at this moment. Yeowch.

One of the things that has always interested me about history is trying to get a sense of how people related to the societal structures of their time. When it comes to women’s experiences in patriarchal and religious structures in the past, how much buy in was there from the women involved? The answers to these sort of questions will always be varied, just as people today internalize social structures of today in different ways and to various extents, but what’s always heartbreaking to realize is that there were always people very aware of what was going on who were also entirely powerless to do anything about it. With some of the thematic material in Ekuoto, there’s a book called Paternal Tyranny by Arcangela Tarabotti that might be of interest to people. It’s a 17th century text written by a nun in Venice, and you can really get a sense of how angry some women were about the social system they lived in. It’s a fascinating historical text and provides really interesting insight to some women’s reactions to religiously informed patriarchy.

Back to Ekuoto, I think it’s interesting that even Josh admits how utterly infuriating Lisa’s situation would’ve been. I also think the second panel is interesting. The shadows over Imuri’s face, with her eyes hidden, reads to me as slightly deceitful. Imuri is the one who got her into this situation in the first place, and then we’re shown Satan’s snake by the group of guards. She’s avoiding responsibility for the harm that she contributed to Lisa through her continued work with Satan. Although she often did not know specifically what his involvement was, it’s clear she repeatedly suspected it, and looked the other way. I think it’s interesting as well that Lisa’s assault in some ways mirrors Josh’s assault at the beginning of the series. What does this mean for Imuri’s relationship with Josh and with Lisa? For Josh, this assault at the beginning of the series has informed his own involvement in the church and his anger. For Lisa it has informed her pact with Baba Yaga and her own anger. I’m wondering if we will get more touching on the way the narrative has so far operated in terms of sympathy for their respective actions.

I’m a massive fan of this Baba Yaga design. Like woah old lady with limbs just slightly too long and chicken legs, what a fun design. I’m also fascinated that Lisa has turned out to literally be the Vasilisa from the fairy tale Vasilisa the Beautiful. This is another interesting moment that seems to reflect the one we had in Chapter 100, in which the series pulled a fake out ending. There are those who cannot fit within a fairy tale ending, and both times now it seems to center on figures who are queer and victims of sexual violence, Verge and Lisa. Lisa could not be happy with a fairy tale prince, because she is a lesbian (as I am assuming we are meant to read her), and cannot fit into that social mold in any way. It’s a little bit revolutionary girl utena in the fairy tale presentation of it I feel. And I think it’s interesting as well that Lisa understands that the tragedy of her own life is not individual but structural. Especially considering Josh’s recent divorce from structural issues/tapping out of political issues in prior chapters, this emphasis that all the struggles of her life are not unique to her is really interesting to consider in contrast. As Char commented on in a prior chapter, he doesn’t always seem to recognize the way his unique position had afforded him certain opportunities (ie the whole statement about how his prior violence has allowed him a seat at the negotiating table).

I’m actually really happy about this first part. I was kind of disappointed last chapter with Josh’s reaction to Satan’s dehumanizing language towards Imuri, for this exact reason: he didn’t push back on the idea of Imuri as object, but rather of Satan as the owner of that object. I think it’s interesting that Satan sort of leans into that here. I also really liked that Josh’s attitude has been called out. He’s been behaving as though he’s the main player in this, but now that he’s without his powers or his ties to the church, he really isn’t. If anyone has more of a claim to this situation, it’s Imuri, but Josh has been centering himself repeatedly to it.

I also thought Satan’s statement that all Josh needed was a woman and a job kind of interesting. It sort of lampshaded that typical trope of a woman healing the emotional problems of a male protagonist. I’ll be interested to see if the gender dynamic of that is further interrogated, or if it’ll be mainly treated as a sort of “your problems that felt major were resolved by simple ordinary things, so you’re not as important as you think you are” sort of thing.

Satan as Dante is also interesting. I can’t go back and check old chapters unfortunately 💔. Has Satan done that w his speech before, or is he leaning into feminine speech patterns while possessing Dante? If it’s the first then that’s just him I guess being an asshole lol but I’d be curious to know if there’s homophobic overtones to Satan deliberately taking on feminine speech patterns while possessing a closeted gay man. Low-key think he might out him tbh. Maybe I’m reading way too into though and he’s just being a general shitbag by acting cutesy in that moment while possessing their coworker, it’s just after the specific way he was being a dick to Verge I’m like on the fence.

He also presents himself as the Knight to Baba Yaga’s Queen, which is a different power dynamic than we’ve seen with the other witches, but not one entirely out of the left field. In things like Goethe’s Faust, Mephistopheles, the demon that Faust forms a pact with, behaves as a sort of servant figure to him, even while trying to bring about a situation where he can claim Faust’s soul. The nature of demon pacts from the perspective of academic ritual magic was that a spirit or demon would become your servant, not an object of worship.

Additionally, interesting that Satan can use Dante’s miracle while possessing him. Although the salt looks sort of different than it usually does, like it’s rotting, which salt can’t do from what I know but is a total scary demon thing haha. I’m not sure we know much about Marco and Dante’s relationship, but we do know a little bit about of his and Leah’s. I wonder if they’ll be able to fight to kill him, knowing it’s Dante’s body. Priest had to fight Mother Rosa’s possessed body, so it’s interesting that her student, Dante, is facing the same fate as her.