“All that is gold does not glitter,
Not all those who wander are lost;
The old that is strong does not wither,
Deep roots are not reached by the frost.
From the ashes a fire shall be woken,
A light from the shadows shall spring;
Renewed shall be blade that was broken,
The crownless again shall be king.”
Do not trust those who say they know the way to utopia, for they are truly lost. True enlightenment is an acceptance of the mundane as worthy. Perfection is only found within the flaws of the universe.
Paradise is an idea. Joy is already before you; you need but look for it in the fabric of the weave and tend it gently to grow for those yet to come.
To strive only matters if you accept the possibility of failure, and doubly so accept that mediocre success does not invalidate the worth of your attempt.
The difference between love and selfishness. Sacrifice vs Saccharine Pacifism.
A Good person doing nothing. While Jagganoth destroys everything, Allison’s newfound pacifism crumbles to bloodstained dust.
She is a coward.
Her staying away in this Hospitable Hostel of a pyramid does not stop those she loves, whom still fight on, from refusing to let the light die out. All it means is that they do not have her support.
Allison has been physically and emotionally destroyed by Jagganoth and Jadis. She was forced to see the entirety of the multiverse of the Wheel and see her meaningless place in it. She has been told that all of her endeavors are pointless by a literally omniscient being. Her girlfriend was VIVISECTED in front of her.
So excuse me for thinking that MAYBE, JUST MAYBE, she deserves a bit of slack, and that it’s kind of understandable that she doesn’t want to commit suicide by fighting the literally impossible-to-defeat god-king.
If this is how you treat people with trauma in the real world, you are a bad person without empathy.
I would feel bad if this all didn’t happen because Allison decided to go on a whim and enter a fight that, by the way, Cio didn’t want her to join, and White Chain could clearly see that she was doing this with no real conviction other than an inflated sense of self after the training.
I am not going to give slack to people who don’t listen to others and end up bringing pain both upon themselves and everyone around them, let alone getting those very same people killed. I’m not cutting slack for no asshole who does this kind of thing every time, the least she could do is to learn.
And when would that happen, then? When she gets Zaid killed? When White Chain is actually gone? When Allison has no one but herself will she finally own up to her being like that her whole life?
Maybe, JUST MAYBE, SHE SHOULD LISTEN TO HER FRIENDS FOR ONCE
Yeah, just snap her fingers and get rid of all her trauma, because that’s how it works.
Therapy? Healing? Screw that noise, just dump it in the trash, right? You want Allison to be a badass, you want her to fight, and cut, and move forward forever and ever?
She made a stupid decision joining Solomon’s tournament, yes. I concede that point. But your rage against Allison doesn’t answer the question of what, exactly, she’s supposed to DO.
Like, you want her to defeat Jagganoth, break the Wheel, and save the multiverse? Fine.
How about just be there for her friends, so that they can be there for her? She doesn’t even need to fight — perhaps she shouldn’t have. She could have chosen to just stay home with Cio.
What she’s doing now is no different than what she did then. Even though she’s choosing not to fight now, when she chose to fight then, both times she made the selfish choice. Do an endless series of selfish choices justify each other?
What makes her pain and trauma more important than that of her friends? Should everyone just make selfish choices, hurt others, and get hurt themselves?
You are getting a tad defensive about all this, honestly I don’t feel any pity for Allison at this juncture. She bears the responsibility of her team’s current state. And her own.
On top of all that, she has been Mia for three years. While still holding the best weapon and last chance of victory possible in her head.
If she gave a shit, she could have at least gone out, confirmed who was still alive, and handed off the key to(presumably) zaid, and then could have walked away to sip tea, smoke, and read books. This means she put her own personal suffering cleanly above the rest of the dying universe. And that is inexcusable.
She was in a literally medically induced coma for, at minimum, three years. Then, she’s been in a depression and trauma induced catatonic state for several MORE months. Then she’s had to recover to the point that she can comfortably move and do things on her own.
During all of this, when exactly would she have been able to go out and find her friends, people that she has absolutely no reason to believe are alive, while also avoiding Jagganoth and his allies who want to kill her in her weaken state?
The reason I’m taking this personally is because you and everyone criticizing her are dangerously close to saying she deserves to suffer. She’s essentially trapped in an abusive relationship and here you are acting like she’s an idiot for not just leaving.
I don’t think you really understand the gravity of the situation. Worlds ending. People are dying en mass across entire universes. It dosnt matter how much you have suffered, how weak you are, how foolish, how punished, disfunctional, or broken you are.
Her response was to stick her head in the sand. She litterally spelled this out with her comment about being able to leave any time. And it’s clear that she’s flipping between between excuses, because she knows this.
In all honesty Zaid is reacting to all this better than the commenters, but I can imagine that there are a shitton of beings in the multiverse that would be vastly harsher on Allison than anybody here, and I wouldn’t blame them. (Imagine what Solomon, or someone with a similar history, might say if they learned of these events).
The situation is fucked, but This idle numbness she has adopted is the worst decision possible. And if she didn’t have the key, then all this would be moot, the criticisms vapid and hollow, and you would be perfectly in the right on this whole argument.
But she does have it, she didn’t chose this position(not even remotely) by herself, but the ball of responsibility is currently squarely in her court, and has been for 3 years(probably more like2) The fates of who knows how many are resting on the key. And that fact gives validation to every complaint and criticism, weather it’s right or wrong, kind or cruel, levied against her.
(Now for the real stinger where you are actually technichally right, and jadises actions have resulted in a Holloday long enough that she actually heals so she can be ready for the next hardship, but not so long that it’s too late to bring this back)
Tell me you don’t understand trauma and depression without saying you don’t understand trauma and depression.
I’m glad it’s Zaid talking to Alison, and not you — because your attitude would make things exponentially worse.
Not only that, like the other commenter said, she’s literally been in a coma for at least three years. It’s probably only in the last three months that she was even able to get out of bed.
Unless you’re saying she should have gone and fought Jagganoth when she was still mentally and physically broken? Because at that point, she might as well just hand him her fucking key.
I have plenty of experiance with depression, trauma less so, mostly second hand. (Also like hell i would talk to allison like this, i may be blunt and impatient, but im not a blithering idiot that cant read the room).
That being said, fundamentally none of that matters. Shit is burning. Clock is ticking. And alison is, for better and worse, is in the deep end holding the maguffan. Plus even if it has been only a few months, weaker and less fortunate people than Allison have had more bullshit and travesty dumped on them with zero time to recover and have taken it better, in both real life and even this story.
I have litterally covered every other aspect of this simple argument already, so if anybody wants to argue further, carefull review and comprehension of my previous comments should provide an adequate response.
I mean for one, this is a fictional character. I feel as if my criticism towards her in light of the greater picture is apt, given the stakes of the conflict involve the destruction of all reality itself. Allison is a victim of extremely-unfortunate circumstance, and has gone through several stages of coping and acceptance with the role that was unceremoniously thrust upon her.
However, at this point, she should be aware that herself being a victim of all these unfortunate events is something she needs to put behind herself and accept. Her stay with Jadis is not therapeutic healing of the body and soul, it is a blossomed trap meant to ensnare someone who needs to have the will to keep going, and lull them into a state of self-detachment from those they truly care about.
Jadis’ treatment of Allison was Isolation by way of Hospitalization. Under the guise of keeping her safe from Jagganoth, she separated her from the friends she still has. She was greatly healed, yes, but why would she not make efforts to reunite Allison with her friends?
Because Jadis is selfish. Jadis wanted Allison to be like her; detached and apathetic to reality. That is why she tried to make her comfortable with the isolation by lavashing her in comfort and feasts. That is why she showed her the shape of the wheel in its entirety. She broke her in a way no other Demiurge could, with a veil of Kindness.
Allison is *not* meaningless. Jadis needed her alone because each of her friends would of objected to the notion of that. Infinity must be broken.
Funny thing about trauma is that it never really goes away. You get better at dealing with it, working around it, and you can even lessen the effects it has on you, but it’s still there and can still hurt you.
Like, do you want Zaid to just yoink her out of this space and FORCE her to fight? Make her kill and destroy herself all over again for a victory that is impossible? Have her trauma and issues just magically whisked away with a snap of the author’s fingers so we the audience can get back to the awesome art of people kicking ass?
Allison has gone through and experienced horrible and terrible things. She is, at the end of the day, just a person. You can give her all the magic kung-fu and sci-fi power-ups you want, she is still a human being. And human beings BREAK.
Jadis doesn’t need to break her, she was already broken when Incubus killed Cio. Jadis is a philosophical zombie, doing and saying things because she has seen the script and knows what she has do say and do next. You are giving her intentions of deception and cruelty where the author had stated that none exist.
Allison is in pain and you and Zaid and so much of this audience seem desperate to inflict more pain and misery on her. At what point is it too much?
Let’s be honest, we both know the people who are most loudly criticizing Alison’s trauma would have been quivering, bawling messes if they had to experience even half of what she did.
“Total victory is not found in the final sword blow. To perfect victory you cannot continue to spill the blood of a fallen foe, which only shows your insecurities to your many enemies. Instead, you must nurse your foe back to health, dress, and feed him, but not so much that he regains his strength. You must take away every aspect of him which originally seemed fierce and indestructible. In every aspect you must diminish and crush his spirit with affection, all the while maintaining your grip on his sword arm. In this way, kindness is the greatest cruelty.”
I find it deliciously fantastic that all 7 sin go so far into their deeper nuanced meaning. Sloth is more than just being lazy/doing nothing. It is pure unmodivation of zero want. No lust, no drive, no desire. It is true pure nullizim. Pride gets called the capital sin, Lust is where all sins start but Sloth is the pollar oposite of Lust. Sloth is pure Nothing. Pure Apathy. Honestly and truly, the deadliest of sins and this comic illustrates that beautifuly.
You can look at the image of “you are here” within the magnitude of the solar system, the galaxy, and the superclusters. Most see this and decide that there is no point to anything, even if they make the effort. Some, see it as the basi… and require more to feel what they feel, so they aren’t alone. I see it as a challenge and a gift: “and all this is yours, if you grasp it” (well, “grasp it”/”reach for it”).
Trauma affects each differently. Some break, regardless. Some become breakable, and triggers break them. Some lose fear. Some become highly resistant. Some wall themselves away.
I became more aware of my need to understand, and strove for that while repressing my berserker. I… regret the strength of my internal repression, but I thoroughly appreciate having some awareness of the whys of others views.
And, yes, I want to see Allison reclaim her position in the cosmos, the one she fought for, instead of returning to her position in Earthly terms, where she fought for some stuff (sorority sister) and was moved by the tides in other stuff (her initial reason for being with Zaid, for example). I want to see her Roar.
… I also want to see how her binding could be extended to complete whatever goal she had set. And, I want to see if Allison realizes that Jadis could be an ally of Jagganoth.
(If you see all, then you know what to say to inspire people to be great, to inspire them to be fragile or full of unwittingly false bravado, or to inspire them to give in to whatever haunts them. Jadis, if her knowledge is truly omniscient, sees all of the possibilities, including one where Allison becomes the new king of the wheel and rules as long as Solomon had. But Jadis chose a different future, one where Allison is now at the “who controls the fate of others” crossroad and leaning toward “I will never do so again”.)
Small problem with your last paragraph: You’re operating under the assumption that Jadis has some level of choice or free will. There is no free will in KSBD. The world is 100% deterministic. Jadis did not choose a future, she saw what the future would be. She saw how everything that happened was always the only thing that could ever happen.
There is no free will in KSBD. Jadis wasn’t lying about that, and Abbadon has been pretty clear that Jadis is telling the truth on his twitter as well.
the fate of the wheel is more important than personal hangups. if she doesn’t want the stone she should have given it up to zaid. as an all powerful being she could go home at any time. there is no room for “me” in war. you know what’s really traumatic? dying along with your planet and everyone on it. i couldn’t give a fuck if you’re upset, everyone is.
Listen, I want Allison to heal and get better and become a stronger person and to live a happy and wonderful life just as much as everyone else in this comment section, but you’re being a real jerk about this.
The issue here is that, in KSBD, “everyone else > you” is a wrong mathematical statement. A better version, based on Jadis’s knowledge of literally everything, would be “everyone = nothing”.
THAT is the issue here. Allison has accepted Jadis’s thesis and has decided to do nothing because, in her eyes, there is literally nothing to do. Remember, in Kill Six Billion Demons, free will literally does not exist, fate literally cannot be changed, and the literally omniscient philosophical zombie as stated that Allison has lost.
It doesn’t matter how you frame Allison going to fight Jagganoth and his armies, it still is a pointless, suicidal endeavor. It’s better to be the careful planner who survives the trip without incident than the magnificent idiot who soldiers on and dies.
that is completely self absorbed. jadis is an entity generated by a machine made by men. she is fatalistic by design. the wheel is meant to be broken. if there is no choice, then there is no reason to survive at all. you know that there is only one series of events, to act them out is pointless. the logical conclusion of this mindset is suicide. there is nothing to live for. but allison doesn’t kill herself, because in truth she wants an excuse to ignore the problems she perpetuated and instead pity herself and live a deacadent life. pure cowardice. everyone is suffering far worse. that is the reality of war. she deserves no sympathy, it was always just a fun adventure for her up until she had to deal with exactly what everyone else did, death and destruction. now she wants to run and hide with the power of god? i have no sympathy. time to nut up or shut up
She said “all we can do is keep moving forward” right before merging with Cio. So he’s not making a direct quotation by any means, and really just vaguely gesturing towards something she said
Were this an illusion, of course, the implication would be not that this is the hand that she lost. Phantom limbs aside, you can’t feel through what you don’t have.
If this were an Illusion, the pain would be located near where an IV drip was placed in her hand to feed drugs and nutrients to her torn and ravaged body. But since she’s obviously there in front of Zaid with all her limbs and looking nothing like the image of “Kill 6 Billion Demons” that we have seen step before Zoss looking like the survivor of some horrible battle, that could not be the real answer.
don’t get me wrong, i’ve been enjoying this let’s play, but i really wish Abbadon had completed the sidequests. missing the Lysanderoth boss battle is a disservice to the audience.
No one has ever died for you, Allison. You lived for them. But you haven’t really been living, have you? I hope you remember what it really feels like to be alive soon.
A difficult situation for both would-be heroes to navigate. In the words of a great troupe of bards:
“Should I stay or should I go now?
If I go, there will be trouble…
And if I stay it will be double…”
We were shown the king of demons a long time ago (the creepy guy imprisoned inside the cage) just before going into the dragon’s vault. It feels to me that this character is too important to be left out and I hope it will be the key to get Cio back.
Cio’s previous husband got her back by reuniting the fragments of her mask. They can probably do something similar. I would also like to see the golden masked kitty again
So what are we thinking – is this all just a progressively more and more complicated simulation…or is this all real and she’s gonna re-lose her arm and eye again somehow?
Well, readers HAVE been berated by the author on Twitter for thinking that something else (a secret plan from Jadis, a mental simulation, all this is a lie and Allison still lost an arm, a leg and an eye, etc…) was afoot, instead of taking everything Jadis said at face value.
So I’m guessing this is all true.
(no offense to the author, of course. People on Twitter are immensely rude)
She said “All we can do is keep moving forward” in page 36 of “Breaker of Infinities”.
But she didn’t say anything else, and certainly not as Zaid said it. Could be a case of heroification of Allison, and either misremembering or changing what she said to make it more heroic.
I like the scenery, having a wide open field and wind inside a closed space gives it uncanny feel. It really drives home how vast the pyramid really is!
My mistake, it’s not the hand she held the cubit spear with.
Nothing visible in the left hand in the astral view of herself as she healed. some evidence of blood in the palm as we saw her injured body which could have been a piece of Cio’s mask embedded as she crawled to her or something about it being slapped away by Incubus.
Beyond that, it was her left index finger that Jadis noted twitching slightly and the hand she finally reached for the food with.
“A woman treads along on a well-worn path. She discarded the sword, the bringer of cutting, long ago. Such toys are no longer needed, for the time for cutting has passed. Her only hand is empty.
Behind her lies Heaven, full of all manner of life and wonder. In front of her, in the distance, there is only Oblivion—The Ending of the All. She hums a scrap of a tune, long forgotten.
Her steps are confident, her heart light without the burden of the sword, the bringer of cutting.
Oblivion draws near, and she walks ever forward. Her hand—that once wielded the sword, bringer of cutting, now empty—reaches out to her side and grasps that of another. She squeezes tight.
The two women tread along on a well-worn path. They discarded their swords, the bringers of cutting, long ago. Such toys are no longer needed, for the time for cutting has passed. Their only hands are no longer empty.
Behind them lays Hell, full of all manner of life and wonder. In front of them, much closer, lies Oblivion—The Beginning of the New. They hum a tune, now remembered.
Their steps are confident, their hearts light with the solace of love, the bringer of mending.
Are we not all a little lost?
Not all who are lost wander.
Winniw the Pooh said that.
“All that is gold does not glitter,
Not all those who wander are lost;
The old that is strong does not wither,
Deep roots are not reached by the frost.
From the ashes a fire shall be woken,
A light from the shadows shall spring;
Renewed shall be blade that was broken,
The crownless again shall be king.”
“There is nowhere youcould go that I will not follow, Christopher.
There can be no escape.”
I always wanted to see Winnie the Pooh with Christopher Walken.
There was Brainy The Pooh and Christopher Walken. Fantastic Animaniacs episode.
Not all who wander are found…
I do not trust anyone who claims otherwise.
Only in silence the word,
Only in dark the light,
Only in dying life:
Bright the hawk’s flight
On the empty sky.
-The Creation of Éa
The splinter of hope hurts
Do not trust those who say they know the way to utopia, for they are truly lost. True enlightenment is an acceptance of the mundane as worthy. Perfection is only found within the flaws of the universe.
Paradise is an idea. Joy is already before you; you need but look for it in the fabric of the weave and tend it gently to grow for those yet to come.
To strive only matters if you accept the possibility of failure, and doubly so accept that mediocre success does not invalidate the worth of your attempt.
–
My coming, my going —
Two simple happenings
That got entangled.
–
Are you lost? or have you been lost since the very beggining
Never ever trust the sat nav.
O, ALLISON, ROYAL ONE, CHILD OF PAIN. MAY YOU FIND SAMURA.
Abbadon, you are feeding me so well.
Also, confirmation that WC is alive! That’s a relief.
nothing else mattered
glory to the new flesh
and yet,
Where are you, White Chain?
W H E R E
I S
M A Y A?
Maya bought the rat time to get away. Allison lives.
But a Maya-Incubus swordfight has only one conclusion. And we know Incubus lives.
Slop Slop Slop Slop Slop!
MMM
SLOP
Well, at least she still has one girlfriend.
Lovers are like tires. Always keep a spare in the trunk just in case!
Is someone dying for you fundamentally different than someone dying because you refused to act? Asking for a friend.
The difference between love and selfishness. Sacrifice vs Saccharine Pacifism.
A Good person doing nothing. While Jagganoth destroys everything, Allison’s newfound pacifism crumbles to bloodstained dust.
She is a coward.
Her staying away in this Hospitable Hostel of a pyramid does not stop those she loves, whom still fight on, from refusing to let the light die out. All it means is that they do not have her support.
Shut up.
Allison has been physically and emotionally destroyed by Jagganoth and Jadis. She was forced to see the entirety of the multiverse of the Wheel and see her meaningless place in it. She has been told that all of her endeavors are pointless by a literally omniscient being. Her girlfriend was VIVISECTED in front of her.
So excuse me for thinking that MAYBE, JUST MAYBE, she deserves a bit of slack, and that it’s kind of understandable that she doesn’t want to commit suicide by fighting the literally impossible-to-defeat god-king.
If this is how you treat people with trauma in the real world, you are a bad person without empathy.
I would feel bad if this all didn’t happen because Allison decided to go on a whim and enter a fight that, by the way, Cio didn’t want her to join, and White Chain could clearly see that she was doing this with no real conviction other than an inflated sense of self after the training.
I am not going to give slack to people who don’t listen to others and end up bringing pain both upon themselves and everyone around them, let alone getting those very same people killed. I’m not cutting slack for no asshole who does this kind of thing every time, the least she could do is to learn.
And when would that happen, then? When she gets Zaid killed? When White Chain is actually gone? When Allison has no one but herself will she finally own up to her being like that her whole life?
Maybe, JUST MAYBE, SHE SHOULD LISTEN TO HER FRIENDS FOR ONCE
Yeah, just snap her fingers and get rid of all her trauma, because that’s how it works.
Therapy? Healing? Screw that noise, just dump it in the trash, right? You want Allison to be a badass, you want her to fight, and cut, and move forward forever and ever?
She made a stupid decision joining Solomon’s tournament, yes. I concede that point. But your rage against Allison doesn’t answer the question of what, exactly, she’s supposed to DO.
Like, you want her to defeat Jagganoth, break the Wheel, and save the multiverse? Fine.
How?
How about just be there for her friends, so that they can be there for her? She doesn’t even need to fight — perhaps she shouldn’t have. She could have chosen to just stay home with Cio.
What she’s doing now is no different than what she did then. Even though she’s choosing not to fight now, when she chose to fight then, both times she made the selfish choice. Do an endless series of selfish choices justify each other?
What makes her pain and trauma more important than that of her friends? Should everyone just make selfish choices, hurt others, and get hurt themselves?
You are getting a tad defensive about all this, honestly I don’t feel any pity for Allison at this juncture. She bears the responsibility of her team’s current state. And her own.
On top of all that, she has been Mia for three years. While still holding the best weapon and last chance of victory possible in her head.
If she gave a shit, she could have at least gone out, confirmed who was still alive, and handed off the key to(presumably) zaid, and then could have walked away to sip tea, smoke, and read books. This means she put her own personal suffering cleanly above the rest of the dying universe. And that is inexcusable.
She was in a literally medically induced coma for, at minimum, three years. Then, she’s been in a depression and trauma induced catatonic state for several MORE months. Then she’s had to recover to the point that she can comfortably move and do things on her own.
During all of this, when exactly would she have been able to go out and find her friends, people that she has absolutely no reason to believe are alive, while also avoiding Jagganoth and his allies who want to kill her in her weaken state?
The reason I’m taking this personally is because you and everyone criticizing her are dangerously close to saying she deserves to suffer. She’s essentially trapped in an abusive relationship and here you are acting like she’s an idiot for not just leaving.
Do you realize how that sounds?
I don’t think you really understand the gravity of the situation. Worlds ending. People are dying en mass across entire universes. It dosnt matter how much you have suffered, how weak you are, how foolish, how punished, disfunctional, or broken you are.
Her response was to stick her head in the sand. She litterally spelled this out with her comment about being able to leave any time. And it’s clear that she’s flipping between between excuses, because she knows this.
In all honesty Zaid is reacting to all this better than the commenters, but I can imagine that there are a shitton of beings in the multiverse that would be vastly harsher on Allison than anybody here, and I wouldn’t blame them. (Imagine what Solomon, or someone with a similar history, might say if they learned of these events).
The situation is fucked, but This idle numbness she has adopted is the worst decision possible. And if she didn’t have the key, then all this would be moot, the criticisms vapid and hollow, and you would be perfectly in the right on this whole argument.
But she does have it, she didn’t chose this position(not even remotely) by herself, but the ball of responsibility is currently squarely in her court, and has been for 3 years(probably more like2) The fates of who knows how many are resting on the key. And that fact gives validation to every complaint and criticism, weather it’s right or wrong, kind or cruel, levied against her.
(Now for the real stinger where you are actually technichally right, and jadises actions have resulted in a Holloday long enough that she actually heals so she can be ready for the next hardship, but not so long that it’s too late to bring this back)
Tell me you don’t understand trauma and depression without saying you don’t understand trauma and depression.
I’m glad it’s Zaid talking to Alison, and not you — because your attitude would make things exponentially worse.
Not only that, like the other commenter said, she’s literally been in a coma for at least three years. It’s probably only in the last three months that she was even able to get out of bed.
Unless you’re saying she should have gone and fought Jagganoth when she was still mentally and physically broken? Because at that point, she might as well just hand him her fucking key.
I have plenty of experiance with depression, trauma less so, mostly second hand. (Also like hell i would talk to allison like this, i may be blunt and impatient, but im not a blithering idiot that cant read the room).
That being said, fundamentally none of that matters. Shit is burning. Clock is ticking. And alison is, for better and worse, is in the deep end holding the maguffan. Plus even if it has been only a few months, weaker and less fortunate people than Allison have had more bullshit and travesty dumped on them with zero time to recover and have taken it better, in both real life and even this story.
I have litterally covered every other aspect of this simple argument already, so if anybody wants to argue further, carefull review and comprehension of my previous comments should provide an adequate response.
I mean for one, this is a fictional character. I feel as if my criticism towards her in light of the greater picture is apt, given the stakes of the conflict involve the destruction of all reality itself. Allison is a victim of extremely-unfortunate circumstance, and has gone through several stages of coping and acceptance with the role that was unceremoniously thrust upon her.
However, at this point, she should be aware that herself being a victim of all these unfortunate events is something she needs to put behind herself and accept. Her stay with Jadis is not therapeutic healing of the body and soul, it is a blossomed trap meant to ensnare someone who needs to have the will to keep going, and lull them into a state of self-detachment from those they truly care about.
Jadis’ treatment of Allison was Isolation by way of Hospitalization. Under the guise of keeping her safe from Jagganoth, she separated her from the friends she still has. She was greatly healed, yes, but why would she not make efforts to reunite Allison with her friends?
Because Jadis is selfish. Jadis wanted Allison to be like her; detached and apathetic to reality. That is why she tried to make her comfortable with the isolation by lavashing her in comfort and feasts. That is why she showed her the shape of the wheel in its entirety. She broke her in a way no other Demiurge could, with a veil of Kindness.
Allison is *not* meaningless. Jadis needed her alone because each of her friends would of objected to the notion of that. Infinity must be broken.
Buzz Buzz
Funny thing about trauma is that it never really goes away. You get better at dealing with it, working around it, and you can even lessen the effects it has on you, but it’s still there and can still hurt you.
Like, do you want Zaid to just yoink her out of this space and FORCE her to fight? Make her kill and destroy herself all over again for a victory that is impossible? Have her trauma and issues just magically whisked away with a snap of the author’s fingers so we the audience can get back to the awesome art of people kicking ass?
Allison has gone through and experienced horrible and terrible things. She is, at the end of the day, just a person. You can give her all the magic kung-fu and sci-fi power-ups you want, she is still a human being. And human beings BREAK.
Jadis doesn’t need to break her, she was already broken when Incubus killed Cio. Jadis is a philosophical zombie, doing and saying things because she has seen the script and knows what she has do say and do next. You are giving her intentions of deception and cruelty where the author had stated that none exist.
Allison is in pain and you and Zaid and so much of this audience seem desperate to inflict more pain and misery on her. At what point is it too much?
Let’s be honest, we both know the people who are most loudly criticizing Alison’s trauma would have been quivering, bawling messes if they had to experience even half of what she did.
They wouldn’t have even made it out of Throne.
You have an exquisitely appropriate username, I applaud the choice.
Thank you! I think?
Well, now I’m going to be quite confused if you’re complimenting me or insulting me or both.
Oh dear, I think I’ve got myself thinking in in a downard spiral.
So a truly sincere congratulations if that was your goal. This’ll be on my mind for the rest of the day.
“Total victory is not found in the final sword blow. To perfect victory you cannot continue to spill the blood of a fallen foe, which only shows your insecurities to your many enemies. Instead, you must nurse your foe back to health, dress, and feed him, but not so much that he regains his strength. You must take away every aspect of him which originally seemed fierce and indestructible. In every aspect you must diminish and crush his spirit with affection, all the while maintaining your grip on his sword arm. In this way, kindness is the greatest cruelty.”
-Au Vam
I find it deliciously fantastic that all 7 sin go so far into their deeper nuanced meaning. Sloth is more than just being lazy/doing nothing. It is pure unmodivation of zero want. No lust, no drive, no desire. It is true pure nullizim. Pride gets called the capital sin, Lust is where all sins start but Sloth is the pollar oposite of Lust. Sloth is pure Nothing. Pure Apathy. Honestly and truly, the deadliest of sins and this comic illustrates that beautifuly.
You can look at the image of “you are here” within the magnitude of the solar system, the galaxy, and the superclusters. Most see this and decide that there is no point to anything, even if they make the effort. Some, see it as the basi… and require more to feel what they feel, so they aren’t alone. I see it as a challenge and a gift: “and all this is yours, if you grasp it” (well, “grasp it”/”reach for it”).
Trauma affects each differently. Some break, regardless. Some become breakable, and triggers break them. Some lose fear. Some become highly resistant. Some wall themselves away.
I became more aware of my need to understand, and strove for that while repressing my berserker. I… regret the strength of my internal repression, but I thoroughly appreciate having some awareness of the whys of others views.
And, yes, I want to see Allison reclaim her position in the cosmos, the one she fought for, instead of returning to her position in Earthly terms, where she fought for some stuff (sorority sister) and was moved by the tides in other stuff (her initial reason for being with Zaid, for example). I want to see her Roar.
… I also want to see how her binding could be extended to complete whatever goal she had set. And, I want to see if Allison realizes that Jadis could be an ally of Jagganoth.
(If you see all, then you know what to say to inspire people to be great, to inspire them to be fragile or full of unwittingly false bravado, or to inspire them to give in to whatever haunts them. Jadis, if her knowledge is truly omniscient, sees all of the possibilities, including one where Allison becomes the new king of the wheel and rules as long as Solomon had. But Jadis chose a different future, one where Allison is now at the “who controls the fate of others” crossroad and leaning toward “I will never do so again”.)
Small problem with your last paragraph: You’re operating under the assumption that Jadis has some level of choice or free will. There is no free will in KSBD. The world is 100% deterministic. Jadis did not choose a future, she saw what the future would be. She saw how everything that happened was always the only thing that could ever happen.
There is no free will in KSBD. Jadis wasn’t lying about that, and Abbadon has been pretty clear that Jadis is telling the truth on his twitter as well.
the fate of the wheel is more important than personal hangups. if she doesn’t want the stone she should have given it up to zaid. as an all powerful being she could go home at any time. there is no room for “me” in war. you know what’s really traumatic? dying along with your planet and everyone on it. i couldn’t give a fuck if you’re upset, everyone is.
everyone else > you
Listen, I want Allison to heal and get better and become a stronger person and to live a happy and wonderful life just as much as everyone else in this comment section, but you’re being a real jerk about this.
The issue here is that, in KSBD, “everyone else > you” is a wrong mathematical statement. A better version, based on Jadis’s knowledge of literally everything, would be “everyone = nothing”.
THAT is the issue here. Allison has accepted Jadis’s thesis and has decided to do nothing because, in her eyes, there is literally nothing to do. Remember, in Kill Six Billion Demons, free will literally does not exist, fate literally cannot be changed, and the literally omniscient philosophical zombie as stated that Allison has lost.
It doesn’t matter how you frame Allison going to fight Jagganoth and his armies, it still is a pointless, suicidal endeavor. It’s better to be the careful planner who survives the trip without incident than the magnificent idiot who soldiers on and dies.
that is completely self absorbed. jadis is an entity generated by a machine made by men. she is fatalistic by design. the wheel is meant to be broken. if there is no choice, then there is no reason to survive at all. you know that there is only one series of events, to act them out is pointless. the logical conclusion of this mindset is suicide. there is nothing to live for. but allison doesn’t kill herself, because in truth she wants an excuse to ignore the problems she perpetuated and instead pity herself and live a deacadent life. pure cowardice. everyone is suffering far worse. that is the reality of war. she deserves no sympathy, it was always just a fun adventure for her up until she had to deal with exactly what everyone else did, death and destruction. now she wants to run and hide with the power of god? i have no sympathy. time to nut up or shut up
The secret boss fight is yourself, you never see it coming.
The great enemy that is I, is it not?
Nor do I, for that matter.
Classic Dark Link fight. Always a crowd-pleasing bonus battle.
Hesitation is defeat
She didn’t say that did she? Or did she say something like that that got distorted into that?
She said “all we can do is keep moving forward” right before merging with Cio. So he’s not making a direct quotation by any means, and really just vaguely gesturing towards something she said
The hand pain: please be a shard of Cio’s mask…
Were this an illusion, of course, the implication would be not that this is the hand that she lost. Phantom limbs aside, you can’t feel through what you don’t have.
It’s the hand that she still has.
If this were an Illusion, the pain would be located near where an IV drip was placed in her hand to feed drugs and nutrients to her torn and ravaged body. But since she’s obviously there in front of Zaid with all her limbs and looking nothing like the image of “Kill 6 Billion Demons” that we have seen step before Zoss looking like the survivor of some horrible battle, that could not be the real answer.
Iiiiiiiiiiiiiiio can’t believe I spent three years jammed in your arm!!
Yep, I had the very same impression.
Dang, least we will be finding out what White Chain has been doing.
don’t get me wrong, i’ve been enjoying this let’s play, but i really wish Abbadon had completed the sidequests. missing the Lysanderoth boss battle is a disservice to the audience.
Maybe the bonus boss battle was Zaid vs Allison after all
Lysandroth! So you were behind all this!
He doomed the multiverse when he killed Archibald. Who else was strong enough to show Jagganoth “the point”?
“Let’s try out 23 different demon kebabs”
No one has ever died for you, Allison. You lived for them. But you haven’t really been living, have you? I hope you remember what it really feels like to be alive soon.
A difficult situation for both would-be heroes to navigate. In the words of a great troupe of bards:
“Should I stay or should I go now?
If I go, there will be trouble…
And if I stay it will be double…”
¿Yo me enfrio o lo soplo?
To quote another troupe of bards:
“Bravely ran away, away!”
I LOVE the settings of these last few pages. Jadis knows how to decorate, I’ll give her that.
Beautiful imagery.
The last panel’s dialogue summarizes Alison’s feelings to keep away from fighting.
Her job is even worse, she is going to give billions a choice in how they die.
So White Chain IS alive. And it looks like she found a good disciple.
We were shown the king of demons a long time ago (the creepy guy imprisoned inside the cage) just before going into the dragon’s vault. It feels to me that this character is too important to be left out and I hope it will be the key to get Cio back.
Cio’s previous husband got her back by reuniting the fragments of her mask. They can probably do something similar. I would also like to see the golden masked kitty again
There’s no reason for it, but that field of blue sunflowers reminds me of the field of poppies from the Wizard of Oz.
So what are we thinking – is this all just a progressively more and more complicated simulation…or is this all real and she’s gonna re-lose her arm and eye again somehow?
tbh either option works for me
Well, readers HAVE been berated by the author on Twitter for thinking that something else (a secret plan from Jadis, a mental simulation, all this is a lie and Allison still lost an arm, a leg and an eye, etc…) was afoot, instead of taking everything Jadis said at face value.
So I’m guessing this is all true.
(no offense to the author, of course. People on Twitter are immensely rude)
Well at least White Chain is alive. Also, I don’t remember Allison ever saying what Zaid said…
She said “All we can do is keep moving forward” in page 36 of “Breaker of Infinities”.
But she didn’t say anything else, and certainly not as Zaid said it. Could be a case of heroification of Allison, and either misremembering or changing what she said to make it more heroic.
Or possibly there is much more going on here than meets the eye. Certainly something seems very off about Alison’s whole stay with the Witch of Sloth
I like the scenery, having a wide open field and wind inside a closed space gives it uncanny feel. It really drives home how vast the pyramid really is!
It’s the hand she held the hypercharged cubit spear with…
My mistake, it’s not the hand she held the cubit spear with.
Nothing visible in the left hand in the astral view of herself as she healed. some evidence of blood in the palm as we saw her injured body which could have been a piece of Cio’s mask embedded as she crawled to her or something about it being slapped away by Incubus.
Beyond that, it was her left index finger that Jadis noted twitching slightly and the hand she finally reached for the food with.
Bravo!
“A woman treads along on a well-worn path. She discarded the sword, the bringer of cutting, long ago. Such toys are no longer needed, for the time for cutting has passed. Her only hand is empty.
Behind her lies Heaven, full of all manner of life and wonder. In front of her, in the distance, there is only Oblivion—The Ending of the All. She hums a scrap of a tune, long forgotten.
Her steps are confident, her heart light without the burden of the sword, the bringer of cutting.
Oblivion draws near, and she walks ever forward. Her hand—that once wielded the sword, bringer of cutting, now empty—reaches out to her side and grasps that of another. She squeezes tight.
The two women tread along on a well-worn path. They discarded their swords, the bringers of cutting, long ago. Such toys are no longer needed, for the time for cutting has passed. Their only hands are no longer empty.
Behind them lays Hell, full of all manner of life and wonder. In front of them, much closer, lies Oblivion—The Beginning of the New. They hum a tune, now remembered.
Their steps are confident, their hearts light with the solace of love, the bringer of mending.
Oblivion is here and th—”
—Unknown
Beware beware the most insidious of poisons
The leveller of Great
The boundless Grief.
Beware beware, of “Hope”.