This is discussion archived from a time before the current discussion method was installed.
I fixed the quote. It is in fact from OOTS #274. The Goddess speaking to the Monkey is Norse (look, she's blond, she has long braided hair, and besides the Greek Gods have already all been killed by the snarl—see the first panel). I just realized I need to go back and fix the spelling of "medieval".
Morgan Wick: Not the person who originally added the quote (you can bet I would have tracked down the exact strip and gotten it exactly correct if that were the case, and this is well after the fact anyway), but one of the Greek goddesses in said first panel is depicted as blond(e), having long or braided hair isn't all that commonly associated with the Norse exclusively, and that dress seems more evocative of Greek than Norse, at least to a layman. Compare it to both Zeus in said first panel, and what appears to be Odin in the middle. (If Age of Mythology is any indication, Norse goddesses are almost as resplendent in battle armor as their male counterparts.)
Sigh. Okay look more carefully at the strip, 274, and it's predecessor, 273. At first (strip 273) there are FOUR pantheons. They are called the gods of the North, South, East, and West. But they are based on the Norse, Chinese Zodiac, Mesopotamian, and Greek pantheons. Then at the beginning of strip 274, all the Greek pantheon are killed. So they are dead. So they are no longer characters in the strip. So any character who shows up later is not a Greek goddess. Any later character who is from a pantheon must be either Chinese Zodiac, Mesopotamian, or Norse. She can't be Chinese Zodiac, because she isn't an animal of the chinese Zodiac. (The monkey character, on the other hand IS from Chinese Zodiac!) That leaves Norse or Mesopotamian. The artist knows that stereotypically blond hair is associated with the Norse (yes, okay, he chooses to draw the dead Aphrodite with blond hair, but that is more the stereotype of "attractive sex goddess"). And stereotypically braided hair is more associated with the northern and western Europeans. Because of the simple style of OOTS, the artist needs to use these simple stereotypes. But if we just want to call her a "goddess" that's fine with me.
I've got a question for some more seasoned tropers out there: I'm planning a novel with lots and lots of unrelated mythologies, and even the main characters have wildly different origins. (They consist of a vampire, a werewolf, a ghost, a cyclops, a cyborg, an intelligent robot, a sentient zombie, and a gorgon, for starters.) The world contains psychics, angels, unicorns, oni, witches, fairies, etc. However, most of the world has accepted the existence of fantastic creatures, and there is no Masquerade. There never was. Everybody already knows about the creatures, and they all interact (some for better and some for worse). Would that qualify as a Fantasy Kitchen Sink, or is there a better term out there for it? —Silver Shoelaces
