Daniel and Esther
[un]Divine
is a webcomic by Ayme Sotuyo, about the adventures and misadventures of (principally) Daniel del Toro, a high school student who for reasons of his own, frees a demon who goes by the name of Esther. The general setting is a Crystal Dragon Jesus religious boarding school on an island that has a lot in common with Cuba by the name of Santagüey.
Esther was imprisoned for a period of about five hundred years, under the site of the present school. Daniel released her, with no real idea what he was getting himself into; now she is in his world, and he has lost his soul in consequence.
She claims to be helping Daniel, but HOW remains to be established. She also has some (so far unspecified) purpose of her own, requiring his participation. As the series continues on, it's soon revealed Esther isn't the only mystical being in the school and that the religion on the island might not be so cut and dry as it seems.
On January 2021, Ayme announced she was canceling the comic]], citing personal and financial problems keeping it going and ultimately claiming it as a failure because of it. The series continued the rest of its update on Patreon before being put on the website. Leaving on a cliffhanger and going into indefinite hiatus. Ayme hasn't counted out the possibility of a continuation but chances at the current are slim. An archive can be found here
unDivine has the following tropes include
- The '90s: [un]Divine is set in the mid 1990s, with Daniel owning an original Game Boy that has an Expy of Kirby's Dream Land on it, and his birthday is shown to be May 7, 1979, revealing the particular year as 1996.
- All Myths Are True: Played with; the beings described by the local religion and the random demonic notebook Daniel finds all turn out to be real, but there's much more moral ambiguity between the angels and demons than one would expect. Esther also insists that heaven and hell are not real and "no one goes anywhere" when they die, so the myths aren't entirely accurate.
- Animals Hate Him: After Daniel makes the deal with Esther, he finds that doves suddenly start attacking him out of the blue. A student who witnessed this finds this odd since doves are usually symbols of peace and beauty. A Q&A showed that dogs and other animals have this effect on him too.
- Black Eyes of Evil: As the transformation progresses, Daniel gains these over time.
- Bilingual Bonus: Some of the dialogue is in Spanish with no translation given.
- Deal with the Devil: Daniel makes one surprisingly on a whim after seeing that the demon could help him so he figures there isn't much to lose in giving his soul away.
- Our Demons Are Different: Esther has the usual attributes. Though oddly isn't malicious with Daniel (save for beating around the bush with his questions) or any of the other students, getting along quite well with his sister, Marisol, and academic rival, Rosamaria. Manuel is the exception due to him being an angel.
- The Eyes Have It: Esther, in human form, has red pupils in her eyes that only Daniel can see. Manuel has golden pupils.
- Crystal Dragon Jesus: The general setting is a quasi-Catholic boarding school, connected to the Church.
- Fictional Country: [un]Divine takes place on Santagüey, a fictional Spanish-speaking island nation in the Caribbean whose culture takes cues from Cuba.
- Foreshadowing: [un]Divine has a lot of hints and bits hinting at what's going on.
- It's hard to tell in late Chapter 1 but in Ch 1 Bonus 3, Esther points out that Daniel's eyes are solid black now, reflecting the loss of his soul.
- In Page 65, Esther said "Harder to tell too..." She means that it's harder to tell the angels from the humans in the school.
- In Page 77, when Daniel notices Esther's eyes being different/normal looking in a reflection, Esther asks if Daniel can see a light shaped like a ring around someone's head. She's asking Daniel if he can see an angel's halo, aka where their soul resides.
- In Page 94, Manny shows distress when he sees Daniel going into his room likely sensing Esther due to being an angel.
- In Page 97, Esther wonders if "Is this is a good idea?". She talking about using Daniel in her revenge plan against Divinidad.
- In Page 99, Esther tells Daniel to not let anyone find the pagan book. In Page 208, Rosamaria is seen stuffing it in her bag after kicking Daniel's bag in anger on the previous page. On Page 216, Esther is aware she has the book but does nothing. In fact, she smirks.
- In Page 119, Daniel has a disturbing dream. He dreamt of some angels' true forms.
- A subtle detail that doesn't come up until later but in late Chapter 2, Daniel started to grow fangs. It's easier to see if you eye him on Page 121, 125, and Ch 2 Bonus 1.
- Which includes his pencil on Page 202 and 205. He's been chewing on it because he's teething.
- In Page 133, Esther mentions her power of whoever those she holds hands with, will do what she says but mentions they don't work on Daniel, probably due to him lacking a soul. Confirmed later in Chapter 4, which is why Esther has to manipulate Daniel into being her weapon against Divinidad.
- In Page 142, Manuel prevents Esther from touching Rosamaria's hand during their talk. This is a hint to show that Manny knows who Esther is and her ability.
- Adding on this, on Page 167, Rosamaria notes how Daniel is pleasant instead of being a jerk during council times. In response, Manny claims that isn't Daniel but quickly backpedals and gives a nervous laugh when Rosamaria asks if Manny knows something she doesn't. He knows it's Esther in the form of Daniel.
- On Page 168 he goes after "Daniel" to talk. On Page 169, Esther name drops a couple of angel classes trying to guess at what Manny is, and in 170, Manny mentions something that tells that he's a lot older than he looks.
- On Page 146, Esther warns Daniel to not be alone with Manuel. In Chapter 5, Manuel encounters Daniel alone in the alleyway while he's in the middle of trying to dispose of an angel's corpse. Following after that, they fight each other.
- On Page 152, we're treated to a wide shot of where Esther and Daniel are hanging out, which includes birds on a building but if you look closely, here's an oddly big bird. That's because it isn't a bird at all, it's an angel as revealed on Page 157. In Chapter 4 it's revealed that Carla is that angel and has been spying on them.
- On Page 173-175 Esther and Daniel talk about the statues near la Divinidad, it being Santa Anna and Saint Antonio. It's implied that Esther suspects Manuel is Saint Antonio and is proven correct when Page 194-195, especially Chapter 5 rolls around. It's also implied Mother Anna is Santa Anna on Page 194-195, especially when Daniel feels an ominous presence at the end of Page 179 and when he turns, Mother Anna is the one who appears behind him on the next page, being Page 180.
- In Chapter 4 Bonus 3, a question is asked if every Angel looks the same. Esther answers that there are weirder-looking ones while looking at Manuel. Manny then answers with "I'm uh... squirmier?" He wasn't joking as, first seen during Page 336 when his arm sprouts tentacles, 340, 344, and 346 shows even more, and 347 along with a giant horse skull with canines.
- Fourth-Wall Mail Slot: Several reader questions get answered by character-doodles between chapters.
- Glamour: Esther uses this as her true form is a huge goat-like creature. Though exactly why she chose a white European look in a majority non-white Spanish-speaking area is anyone's guess.
- I Have Many Names: Esther isn't her real name, she admits she's been called so many things she forgot if she even had one. Daniel only goes about calling her that after seeing it as the only readable name in the book she was sealed in.
- Incurable Cough of Death: After Daniel makes his deal with Esther, he finds himself coughing up blood. Esther claims it's a side effect of being soulless and should stop over time.
- "It" Is Dehumanizing: Manuel and Mother Anna refers to Daniel as "it" after he loses his soul. Notably, they call Esther "she," and it turns out she does have a soul, despite being a demon. Daniel is apparently something else entirely.
- Jerkass: Daniel isn't the best person to be around. Sure he loves his sister and is respectful enough of the head clergy, but outside of that he's pretty rude and condescending to most and doesn't even try to get along with other people. Even knowing that the book Esther came from was blasphemous, he still willingly enacted the spell to free her and showed no distress upon being told he no longer has a soul.
- Laser-Guided Amnesia: Despite being a deity of some sort, Mother Anna seemingly suffers from this at times. After Daniel and Esther kill Carla and devour her soul, Anna forgets that she ever existed.
- Naked on Arrival: When Esther is released. Once she sees Daniel, she shifts to a human form that's also quite clearly naked (though we're only shown from the shoulders up).
- The Nothing After Death: Esther claims there's no Heaven or Hell when you die. Just simply nothing.
- Omniglot: One of Esther's abilities is the power to speak/understand any language. According to her, this is so automatic that she doesn't need to know what language she or anyone else is speaking. However, this doesn't extend to written language, meaning that Esther is functionally illiterate.
- Overly-Long Tongue: Esther, not surprising, has a pretty long tongue on her being a demon and all. Manny also has no just one, but three long tongues.
- Really 700 Years Old: Esther, apparently. Also Manuel.
- Statuesque Stunner: Esther, Manuel, and Mother Anna all tower over everyone else.
- Sealed Evil in a Can: Esther was trapped down below underneath the Church's library before Daniel freed her.
- She Is Not My Girlfriend: Daniel has to deflect this assumption about Esther a few times (usually in Spanish).
- Slow Transformation: Not long after making the deal with Esther, Daniel starts to notices fangs forming in his mouth. Implying he might be turning into a monster.
- Skepticism Failure: Daniel essentially ends up making a Deal with the Devil by accident, performing a soul-sacrifice ritual he found in a book with no expectation of it working.
- Our Souls Are Different: A fourth-wall-bending Esther describes souls as "basically fancy batteries," not related to your mind, body, or general self. Or at least that's how she justifies killing and eating angels, and being unconcerned about Daniel's lack of soul.
- Translation Convention: The characters in the story are only speaking Spanish but most of the dialogue is written in English. For instance, in a bonus strip where Daniel and Esther meet an English-speaking tourist, it's revealed that Daniel, in particular, doesn't understand English at all apart from certain words and phrases.
- Workaholic: Daniel at the start, he's the top of his class in academics but is so busy he can barely keep up with other obligations such as being class president and can hardly stay awake in class.
- Wham Episode: Chapter Four:
- Rosamaria ends up in possession of the pagan book used to free Esther after kicking over Daniel's bag in response to him yelling at her and finding it among his books. She shows it to Manuel and Esther notices but oddly doesn't say anything about it.
- Carla attacks Daniel in the bell tower after getting him there under the guise of taking the windows down. Esther soon arrives and impales her to save him, Carla reveals herself to be an angel, and the ensuing battle shows that Daniel is no longer a human but a monster. Not long after that however, Esther reveals she was using Daniel from day one to get her revenge on the angels that trapped her and that he’s a "perfect weapon" to use against them.
