Destroyer of Light
is a webcomic by A-gnosis that follows the experiences of Persephone, daughter of the harvest goddess Demeter. In this version, Persephone is a bit darker than in other portrayals - the author draws on Orphic myths about Persephone, where she is not abducted to the underworld, but goes there willingly. Despite this, the overall tone of the webcomic is rather light-hearted, with the darkness more in the way Persephone is drawn than in her behavior.
Destroyer of Light contains examples of:
- Babies Make Everything Better: Demeter firmly believes this, and is horrified and disgusted when Hecate recounts the tale of a woman who aborted her child because she simply didn't want it, calling her a monster. Persephone agrees, because she sees herself as a monster for doing the same thing.
- Bedmate Reveal: Persephone has sex with a mysterious immortal in a dark cave that obscures his face. Later on, she realizes it was her father Zeus.
- Creepy Shadowed Undereyes: Persephone has these to highlight her darker personality. They match Hades, foreshadowing that her powers as an earth goddess have a bit of The Underworld in them.
- Curse: Persephone threatens to use her powers as a Fertility Goddess to curse Zeus with impotence for insulting her mother. He's honestly impressed with her audacity, but warns her not to push her luck.
- Dark Is Not Evil: Hades, despite being very gloomy, is the most honorable of the three ruling divine brothers, both toward gods and mortals. He is especially kind to his ghostly subjects. There's a reason Persephone falls for him.
- Freudian Threat: Persephone threatens to Curse Zeus himself with impotence if he double-crosses her. He's genuinely taken aback for a moment, then chuckles at her audacity.
- Glamorous Single Mother: Justified — Demeter raises Persephone on her own quite well. The fact that she's a goddess helps.
- Good Girls Avoid Abortion: Played with. Persephone gets pregnant, and chooses to have an abortion. This is portrayed as morally neutral. It doesn't work as intended, however, and the embryo survives, because it's a god and thus cannot die. Persephone gets someone else do adopt it. Not weirder than the canon of Greek Mythology.
- Important Haircut: Persephone cuts her hair and magically regrows it in a fresh style after traveling to Mount Olympus for the first time and getting an abortion.
- My Beloved Smother: Demeter is very protective of her daughter, and not without reason, but it also proves a hindrance to Persephone when she wants some time away to ask Zeus for an abortion.
- Nature Lover: As nature goddesses, Demeter and Persephone live in a rural area and spend as much of their time as possible out in nature. Demeter's the more sociable one, whereas Persephone tends to prefer the company of her plants and animals.
- Rejected Marriage Proposal: When her human Friend With Benefits proposes to her, Persephone laughs, refuses, and breaks things off for good. She does soften the blow by blessing his crops with fertility.
- That Old-Time Prescription: Persephone induces an abortion by consuming pennyroyal over several days. As she explains to Athena, it's widely used as an abortifacient, albeit a dangerous one for mortals — as a goddess, she doesn't have to worry about bleeding to death.
- Transflormation: Zagreus transforms into a grapevine after being aborted.
