Solomon is still getting warmed up — he hasn’t even done the time-stop five-finger thing yet. Presumably deity-level opponents are immune to such shenanigans.
Solomon is performing in this fight, I realize he wasn’t *mocking* White Chain by mimicking his styles. He was trying to give his opponent a sporting chance.
If he had used his own style from the beginning then White Chain would have never had a chance to land a blow, much less draw blood. Instead he used styles that he knew his opponent was familiar with — and therefore more capable of defending against.
He just wanted to put on a show for the crowd while simply seeing if White Chain was strong enough to hurt him.
All I see in this comic is a creature in a sexless shell that self-identifies as male thoughout the entire series no matter what gender any of the characters try to pin on them. And now everybody takes the appearance of a biological body to prove they’re actually female.
42 Fragments the Universe Beyond All Reintegration
Then you really need to re-read the whole thing. White Chain’s whole arc, from the very first panel where she appears, describes her path to becoming female. First, she is angry denial. Then she seeks approval from her brothers for being sexless but slightly feminine; they reject this. Then she’s in open conflict between her feelings and the demands of the concordance. She chooses the concordance view at first, then reacts against it during the Yre episode (she puts on the sari), then reverts to conformance again at the start of book 4. Finally, on Rayuba, she lets go of her angelic ties and with them her asexuality. She is transformed and become female. It’s a great and glorious story and you’re missing a treat if you haven’t seen it.
agreed, im not personally a fan of how white chains arc has been handled but a less than fine line between having opinions and being ignorant and 31 isnt even in the area of it nevermind in position to rules lawyer which side they re on.
though keep in mind, they might not actually be a transphobe, just an idiot. do not so easily ascribe to malice what could just as well be ignorance and all.
42 Spongegirl, Fryer of Patties, Lettuce-Chopper of Night, Forever Ready
Are we reading the same story? White Chain has struggled throughout the story with her asexual/celestial body opposing her true feminine, and quite human, nature. Now she is something more than angelic and more than human. She has, during her battle with Solomon (which was more of a battle with her divisive self), defined her gender, her soul, and her freedom from conformity.
lol, clearly you haven’t read the story at all…White Chain has been conflicted between being true to herself and meeting the expectations of her “brothers” (if not all who know of the angels) since her appearance in the story and the end of the fight with solomon. you do yourself a disservice with such a fundamentally flawed understanding of the events that have transpired. go read it from the beginning.
He just wanted to put on a show for the crowd while assuming White Chain wasn’t strong enough to hurt him.
Myriad failures. How did he not evacuate the city immediately, he must’ve instantly understood what would happen the moment he displayed weakness, even if he did it deliberately.
If I had to guess, I’d say it’s just shadowed flame. The one above his head looks a lot like a keyflame, and when that flame is bright, then there’s typically other flames involved.
The Book of Destiny, written in ink, is said to contain all that was, is, and will be until the end of time. Is mere ink mighty enough to hold the paradoxes of Yisun?
The Law, carved by Koss’s chisel of Yre, is expressed in the cold, white flames of angels. Without the united Prime Angels, I can only compare their fires to damp cinders.
Oh apocalypse, oh eschaton! Crucify us with void-ice… decapitate us to decorate a World Tree… or even slave our hearts to your hammers, and break every brick and stone in the Red City!
But please, if the end rushes to drown us in blood, do not shame us so. Unblinking, we watch the titan-flames of the multiverse, and see our own deceptions; our self-carving blades, each guided by each living soul, are rusted. Chipped. And so painfully dull. We were never going to reach their strength. Why here, why now, must these golden gods shame us AND DARE TO DESCEND! The masters of heavens… dissolved by royal water from a single cloud.
The forces of the sovereign Allison Wanda Ruth scoured the corpse at the center of the multiverse. Free of rot, the skeleton grins now and forevermore. I myself am taking these changes one turn at time. First I will pick up “Golden Locks and a Hot, Black Heart” by Ciocie Cioelle.
You know, I kinda doubt it’ll be what actually happens, but I think I’d enjoy seeing Jagganoth actually lose this fight due to the demiurges discovering the power of teamwork.
I think they all know that armies are better kept in reserve rather than deployed into a battle where they’ll do nothing and get annihilated not even on purpose.
Right, the armies aren’t for fighting the Demiurges, they’re for fighting the other armies, because for all of their power, the Demiurges aren’t omnipotent or omnipresent, and thus need peons to act in their stead when they are personally engaged elsewhere.
Except for Gog Agog, who is physically present in her followers. I expect she mobilized immediately upon realizing that Jagganoth had reopened hostilities, and is in the process of gaining big advantages with her armies before the others can even contact theirs.
42 Fragments the Universe Beyond All Reintegration
We know that Jagganoth has or will have an army on Rayuba because “remnants of Jagganoth’s forces” are one of the factions in the War for Rayuba OCT. We don’t know when or how those forces got to Rayuba.
Right now an army would be very useful to lay siege to the city. There’s chaos and people are being evacuated. If Jagganoth’s army struck the city right now Rayuba’s guards may not be enough to push them back while also managing the evacuation. One of the other demiurges might be forced to go deal with the army
Of course, the people are next to inconsequential for this fight here. You know how you don’t bring a knife to a gun fight? Well… You don’t bring a person to a Demiurg fight.
No, demiurgs are not people.[1]
[1: The comic, up to this point.]
42 Fragments the Universe Beyond All Reintegration
Demiurges are people, but they’re people who can solo higher tech worlds like ours which would otherwise be able to resist or stop armies coming through the gate. You still need them to hold ground though.
So yeah. Armies matter, but only where demiurges aren’t.
But will it be before or after Incubus betrays the others after they’ve gained the upper hand over Jagganoth, or before or after he also betrays his deal with Jagganoth?
I thought about it before reading the comments:
The devious master plan all along is this: Who gets Jaggy’s key once he’s killed? Who gets his kingdom? Right now the demiurges are fighting in self-defense, but once they win, will there be a fight over the spoils of war? Jag might be planning to lose. He might be able to take on multiple demiurges, but if all of existence know he’s a threat to them all, can even he stand up to all existence? But if all of existence is in all out war with itself…
Just a possibility.
It is divisible by 3 at least. Maybe if enough of them die a new balance can be found? Jadis seems quite keen to depart from this mortal coil, Mottom has no means of maintaining immortality at this moment, Mammon was one of the weaker demiurges to start with and age has weakened his mind and body further, and Jagganoth has to die for the fight to end.
That would leave Solomon, Incubus, and Gog-Agog as the surviving demiurges. Not all that great, but an improvement, possibly, depending on how Mammon and Jadis rule their domains (as we can already ascertain that it is likely very unpleasant to live under the dominion of Incubus, Jagganoth, Mottom, or Gog-Agog).
Unless Maya slays Incubus and takes his key for her own, in which case the state of the multiverse would be unquestionably improved. Though that of course begs the question of what would happen to the keys of the other slain demiurges? 3 does not divide into 7, of course. Which brings us back to your original point.
Though it is unlikely the story will develop in this manner, given we have a protagonist who has yet to finish her journey.
42 Fragments the Universe Beyond All Reintegration
If J’s aim were actually to unite the other demiurges against Metatron, then winning by losing this fight would be a subtle way forward. Abbadon did say that J was the most interesting of the Seven.
Yeah, there’s a lot that seems off and not quite as it seems, like you mentioned, Incubus saying Jag came too early. And if he really wanted Allison’s key, how easy would it have been to kill her and take it before the other demiurges could stop him? Maybe they could, I don’t know. Solomon seems to have more speed than Jag. But he had no problem disabling Allison from using it without them interfering. But as soon as the demiurges started fighting together, he said “finally” and then they land some pretty big hits on him.
So maybe his plan is to lose or maybe not, but I’m sure he’s not revealed his true plan.
Oh, hum. I was confused by the grumble voice bubble Jagganoth had on panel 2 of the previous page. Being frustrated at not killing Solomon quickly enough was the best I could come up with, even though he was completely pinned.
But this may explain it. Jagganoth had Solomon down and wasn’t defending himself, but nobody was exploiting that.
That, or he said “Finally” because Solomon was far away and he had a shot at the squishies. But he had that with Mottom earlier!
That grumble voice bubble you mentioned… it reminded me a bit of the ‘popped vein’ symbol you often see in anime. Almost as if Solomon not extricating himself from that light show and nobody else attacking him was p*ssing him of somehow. But if he really wanted them to start cooperating, that might make sense.
The fight will turn in favor of the other demiurges but when Incubus readies himself for the final strike against Jagganoth, Methengi will strike him down. In the ensuing chaos, Jagganoth escapes.
Man, I love coming back to these comments and looking at what everyone was predicting at the time. No spoilers, just…MAN was this whole comment thread interesting, looked at from a future perspective..
38 Wandering Soul Grows the Seeds of the Void, bouncer/hitwoman of Icemonger Industries
The Gogs are busy mobilizing their legions of worm slaves simultaneously across the worlds before the armies of the other six even realize that the war is back on.
Ah, I see why Jaggy wears armor, despite being invincible. It’s so that his opponents can damage it and get lulled into the false feeling that they’re doing anything at all. So that they fight rather than run, which would necessitate hunting them down.
I was thinking the same thing. Clearly the armor can be damaged, but will there be a matching dent in his skull beneath that dent in his helmet?
Time and nature has taught me not to believe in such nonsensical concepts as ‘invincibility’, but I suspect it will take far more than a few lucky hits to fell this particular titan.
Were I invincible, I’d be tempted to fight my enemies entirely in the nude, but I feel the temptation of showing up in some really cool armor is stronger. It’s about sending a message, really.
Maybe it’s weighted armour that he uses for training. Or maybe it seals his power at 25% and we’re going to see a three-phase Jagganoth boss battle. Or perhaps another anime based armour trope.
Yea, an ancient technique I am familiar with: the use of improvised weapons can allow a duelist a degree of unexpected spontaneity, and is exhilarating to watch besides!
CLAMMO!
SMACK-HAM!
That’ll buff right out.
I don’t know, Addlepate, that’s a lotta damage.
TO SHOW TOU THE POWER OF FLEX TAPE, I SAWED THE UNIVERSE INTO SEVEN PARTS!
Phil, Swift Mason of the thrones, shows the power of unity through destruction and reconstruction
For the true demonstration of power is not in the act of splitting, but in the moment of joining.
Solomon is still getting warmed up — he hasn’t even done the time-stop five-finger thing yet. Presumably deity-level opponents are immune to such shenanigans.
There is supposedly a ten finger, ten point strike that can level cities. I wonder if he’s not using it out of fear of even more collateral damage?
SHAM-WOW! [wait, that’s not really a sound effect]
bonk
this is perfect, thank you
Pit it in the wash. It’ll be grand.
Solomon is performing in this fight, I realize he wasn’t *mocking* White Chain by mimicking his styles. He was trying to give his opponent a sporting chance.
If he had used his own style from the beginning then White Chain would have never had a chance to land a blow, much less draw blood. Instead he used styles that he knew his opponent was familiar with — and therefore more capable of defending against.
He just wanted to put on a show for the crowd while simply seeing if White Chain was strong enough to hurt him.
Her styles, you mean
Hey now, don’t pretend you know how White Chain self-identifies.
If you’re going to be a pedant, at least do us all the favour of trying to be correct
All I see in this comic is a creature in a sexless shell that self-identifies as male thoughout the entire series no matter what gender any of the characters try to pin on them. And now everybody takes the appearance of a biological body to prove they’re actually female.
Then you really need to re-read the whole thing. White Chain’s whole arc, from the very first panel where she appears, describes her path to becoming female. First, she is angry denial. Then she seeks approval from her brothers for being sexless but slightly feminine; they reject this. Then she’s in open conflict between her feelings and the demands of the concordance. She chooses the concordance view at first, then reacts against it during the Yre episode (she puts on the sari), then reverts to conformance again at the start of book 4. Finally, on Rayuba, she lets go of her angelic ties and with them her asexuality. She is transformed and become female. It’s a great and glorious story and you’re missing a treat if you haven’t seen it.
I’m getting the feeling the pedant is actually a transphobe, and not being particularly stealthy about it
agreed, im not personally a fan of how white chains arc has been handled but a less than fine line between having opinions and being ignorant and 31 isnt even in the area of it nevermind in position to rules lawyer which side they re on.
though keep in mind, they might not actually be a transphobe, just an idiot. do not so easily ascribe to malice what could just as well be ignorance and all.
Are we reading the same story? White Chain has struggled throughout the story with her asexual/celestial body opposing her true feminine, and quite human, nature. Now she is something more than angelic and more than human. She has, during her battle with Solomon (which was more of a battle with her divisive self), defined her gender, her soul, and her freedom from conformity.
lol, clearly you haven’t read the story at all…White Chain has been conflicted between being true to herself and meeting the expectations of her “brothers” (if not all who know of the angels) since her appearance in the story and the end of the fight with solomon. you do yourself a disservice with such a fundamentally flawed understanding of the events that have transpired. go read it from the beginning.
FOR THE CRIME OF DISRESPECTING OUR ANGEL WITH THE WRONG ADDRESS, GIGATON PUNCH
He just wanted to put on a show for the crowd while assuming White Chain was st$
Myriad failures. How did he not evacuate the city immediately, he must’ve inst$
He just wanted to put on a show for the crowd while assuming White Chain wasn’t strong enough to hurt him.
Myriad failures. How did he not evacuate the city immediately, he must’ve instantly understood what would happen the moment he displayed weakness, even if he did it deliberately.
Solomon appears unhurt. What were those bits we saw cascading off him in the previous page? Clearly not incinerated beard jewelry.
Bits of broken sword
If I had to guess, I’d say it’s just shadowed flame. The one above his head looks a lot like a keyflame, and when that flame is bright, then there’s typically other flames involved.
Now that’s a Golden God
The Book of Destiny, written in ink, is said to contain all that was, is, and will be until the end of time. Is mere ink mighty enough to hold the paradoxes of Yisun?
The Law, carved by Koss’s chisel of Yre, is expressed in the cold, white flames of angels. Without the united Prime Angels, I can only compare their fires to damp cinders.
Oh apocalypse, oh eschaton! Crucify us with void-ice… decapitate us to decorate a World Tree… or even slave our hearts to your hammers, and break every brick and stone in the Red City!
But please, if the end rushes to drown us in blood, do not shame us so. Unblinking, we watch the titan-flames of the multiverse, and see our own deceptions; our self-carving blades, each guided by each living soul, are rusted. Chipped. And so painfully dull. We were never going to reach their strength. Why here, why now, must these golden gods shame us AND DARE TO DESCEND! The masters of heavens… dissolved by royal water from a single cloud.
The forces of the sovereign Allison Wanda Ruth scoured the corpse at the center of the multiverse. Free of rot, the skeleton grins now and forevermore. I myself am taking these changes one turn at time. First I will pick up “Golden Locks and a Hot, Black Heart” by Ciocie Cioelle.
Golden Gods is Throne’s version of the Golden Girls
Gog Agog Writhes With Possibilities.
Oh like that’s anything new… :p
Fist of the Vectorwave Peel.
Wait, what? Tiny Solomon? Am I not seeing this right?
I think the perspective is a little wonky is all.
Jaggy is one big heckin chonker.
^This.
If you recall, Jagganoth be B I G. Ah lord, he comin’.
What happens with the sword between the third and the last panels, by the way?
I mean, it is one big chunk of a metal rod moving at Jaggspeed, that’s gonna cause a lot of damage.
He’s dropped it. You can see the handy in the top-right of the last panel
Oh hey that’s true. ❤
Huge Jagganoth. He’s 30 feet tall.
Possibly huger than when we first saw him back in book 3? A big bad who gets bigger as he gets angrier would be fitting.
S M O L O M O N
Every time I think this fight has reached a peak it goes higher. By YISUN I love this comic.
And from downtown, it’s… SOLOMON!
And he’s GOT A STEEL CHAIR!
Clever, coming from the Red God’s blindspot.
Good thoughts but no. His good eye is on that side.
Not anymore it’s not
You know, I kinda doubt it’ll be what actually happens, but I think I’d enjoy seeing Jagganoth actually lose this fight due to the demiurges discovering the power of teamwork.
Idea: that *almost* happens, but Gog-Agog stabs Solomon in the back at the last minute and it all goes to hell.
Alternatively, Jagganoth’s army comes along, and all goes to hell too.
Doesn’t everyone else have armies. too? You’d think they’d’ve summoned them by now.
I think they all know that armies are better kept in reserve rather than deployed into a battle where they’ll do nothing and get annihilated not even on purpose.
Right, the armies aren’t for fighting the Demiurges, they’re for fighting the other armies, because for all of their power, the Demiurges aren’t omnipotent or omnipresent, and thus need peons to act in their stead when they are personally engaged elsewhere.
Except for Gog Agog, who is physically present in her followers. I expect she mobilized immediately upon realizing that Jagganoth had reopened hostilities, and is in the process of gaining big advantages with her armies before the others can even contact theirs.
We know that Jagganoth has or will have an army on Rayuba because “remnants of Jagganoth’s forces” are one of the factions in the War for Rayuba OCT. We don’t know when or how those forces got to Rayuba.
Right now an army would be very useful to lay siege to the city. There’s chaos and people are being evacuated. If Jagganoth’s army struck the city right now Rayuba’s guards may not be enough to push them back while also managing the evacuation. One of the other demiurges might be forced to go deal with the army
Of course, the people are next to inconsequential for this fight here. You know how you don’t bring a knife to a gun fight? Well… You don’t bring a person to a Demiurg fight.
No, demiurgs are not people.[1]
[1: The comic, up to this point.]
“Peasants only count in case of a tie” — Blackadder series 1.
Demiurges are people, but they’re people who can solo higher tech worlds like ours which would otherwise be able to resist or stop armies coming through the gate. You still need them to hold ground though.
So yeah. Armies matter, but only where demiurges aren’t.
I think the arena showed the likely outcome for any army that might attempt an attack Jaggoth.
Maybe the emissaries could do some work just to split his focus, but in all honesty the power is probably better off centred and focused than split.
I’m pretty sure it’s going to be Maya that stabs Incubus. But I’ve been saying that for months now.
But will it be before or after Incubus betrays the others after they’ve gained the upper hand over Jagganoth, or before or after he also betrays his deal with Jagganoth?
I thought about it before reading the comments:
The devious master plan all along is this: Who gets Jaggy’s key once he’s killed? Who gets his kingdom? Right now the demiurges are fighting in self-defense, but once they win, will there be a fight over the spoils of war? Jag might be planning to lose. He might be able to take on multiple demiurges, but if all of existence know he’s a threat to them all, can even he stand up to all existence? But if all of existence is in all out war with itself…
Just a possibility.
Excellent point, my friend.
That is indeed something to think about.
777.777 is not evenly divisible by 6.
It is divisible by 3 at least. Maybe if enough of them die a new balance can be found? Jadis seems quite keen to depart from this mortal coil, Mottom has no means of maintaining immortality at this moment, Mammon was one of the weaker demiurges to start with and age has weakened his mind and body further, and Jagganoth has to die for the fight to end.
That would leave Solomon, Incubus, and Gog-Agog as the surviving demiurges. Not all that great, but an improvement, possibly, depending on how Mammon and Jadis rule their domains (as we can already ascertain that it is likely very unpleasant to live under the dominion of Incubus, Jagganoth, Mottom, or Gog-Agog).
Unless Maya slays Incubus and takes his key for her own, in which case the state of the multiverse would be unquestionably improved. Though that of course begs the question of what would happen to the keys of the other slain demiurges? 3 does not divide into 7, of course. Which brings us back to your original point.
Though it is unlikely the story will develop in this manner, given we have a protagonist who has yet to finish her journey.
If J’s aim were actually to unite the other demiurges against Metatron, then winning by losing this fight would be a subtle way forward. Abbadon did say that J was the most interesting of the Seven.
And that would match Incubus saying ‘it’s too early’ – if Jag’s plan has changed and he’s trying to lose, no need to wait.
Yeah, there’s a lot that seems off and not quite as it seems, like you mentioned, Incubus saying Jag came too early. And if he really wanted Allison’s key, how easy would it have been to kill her and take it before the other demiurges could stop him? Maybe they could, I don’t know. Solomon seems to have more speed than Jag. But he had no problem disabling Allison from using it without them interfering. But as soon as the demiurges started fighting together, he said “finally” and then they land some pretty big hits on him.
So maybe his plan is to lose or maybe not, but I’m sure he’s not revealed his true plan.
Oh, hum. I was confused by the grumble voice bubble Jagganoth had on panel 2 of the previous page. Being frustrated at not killing Solomon quickly enough was the best I could come up with, even though he was completely pinned.
But this may explain it. Jagganoth had Solomon down and wasn’t defending himself, but nobody was exploiting that.
That, or he said “Finally” because Solomon was far away and he had a shot at the squishies. But he had that with Mottom earlier!
That grumble voice bubble you mentioned… it reminded me a bit of the ‘popped vein’ symbol you often see in anime. Almost as if Solomon not extricating himself from that light show and nobody else attacking him was p*ssing him of somehow. But if he really wanted them to start cooperating, that might make sense.
That looks much more like an expression of surprise to me.
The fight will turn in favor of the other demiurges but when Incubus readies himself for the final strike against Jagganoth, Methengi will strike him down. In the ensuing chaos, Jagganoth escapes.
Man, I love coming back to these comments and looking at what everyone was predicting at the time. No spoilers, just…MAN was this whole comment thread interesting, looked at from a future perspective..
What an upset!
It should prove useless against the Red God, of course, but certainly something worth eating pumice-popcorn over.
Oh yeah, that’s the juice
Dangit where’s Gog-Agog and her fellow partners Gog-Agog and Gog-Agog when you need them?
Probably being distracted by Gog-Agog whilst Gog-Agog goes to round up Gog-Agog and Gog-Agog.
The Gogs are busy mobilizing their legions of worm slaves simultaneously across the worlds before the armies of the other six even realize that the war is back on.
“I like ya cut, G”
*GONG*
Jaggy-J failed the vibe check
*BONK*
Go to bloodlusty jail.
A N G E R Y
– SalomonDavie504
vibe check
nice forward air from salami_dave, with that spike he should be able to follow it up with an up special, this could lead to some big damage
Maya is still inbound.
“Finally” oh so this totally was a bonding activity huh.
oh god I hope not! if this is all just jagger’s idea of a pep talk, i’m going to write a letter to my demiurge.
You know… it’s probably akin to how he got pep talks, considering his upbringing.
If they will not listen to reason, one must employ alternative methods to promote unity.
As the great bards once said: “Come together/Right now/Over ME”.
Here come old flat top, he come groovin’ up slowly.
Possibly he just wants to line ’em up and point ’em at Metatron.
I like the art on this page, especially the complex poses on the last panel!
* Jagganoth slowly takes off helmet*
“I am going to enjoy watching you die… mister Solomon.”
BAH GAWD THAT’S SOLOMON’S MUSIC
Ah, I see why Jaggy wears armor, despite being invincible. It’s so that his opponents can damage it and get lulled into the false feeling that they’re doing anything at all. So that they fight rather than run, which would necessitate hunting them down.
Much easier this way.
I was thinking the same thing. Clearly the armor can be damaged, but will there be a matching dent in his skull beneath that dent in his helmet?
Time and nature has taught me not to believe in such nonsensical concepts as ‘invincibility’, but I suspect it will take far more than a few lucky hits to fell this particular titan.
It could be a fashion choice.
Were I invincible, I’d be tempted to fight my enemies entirely in the nude, but I feel the temptation of showing up in some really cool armor is stronger. It’s about sending a message, really.
He’s not wearing pants.
A *bold* fashion choice.
It’s just a huge game of peek-a-boo. And I do mean huge.
Maybe it’s weighted armour that he uses for training. Or maybe it seals his power at 25% and we’re going to see a three-phase Jagganoth boss battle. Or perhaps another anime based armour trope.
Or maybe it’s so he can move properly instead of moon walking. Glues his feet to the ground and such.
In EVE Online this is called bait tanking.
BY GOD, IT’S SOLOMON WITH THE STEEL CHAIR!
Yea, an ancient technique I am familiar with: the use of improvised weapons can allow a duelist a degree of unexpected spontaneity, and is exhilarating to watch besides!
(The steel stairs are also a favourite of mine…)
A steel chair works wonders in a sticky situation! There are times where you gotta think outside the chamber
No one seems to appreciate Solomon’s expresion. It’s quite something.
It’s the same expression I make when I go into a public restroom and find it particularly nasty-as-hell
Where the Demiurges discover that the real Treasure is all the frenemies you made along the way.
Super Power Ninja Turbo Neo Ultra Hyper Mega Multi Alpha Meta Extra Uber Prefix COMBO! 🤜🏿💥💥💥
or SPNTNUHMMAMEUPC for short.