That song was awful and the singer always came across like an asshole who was making fun of her boyfriend’s high school crush because she wasn’t interested in him when they where in high school.
One does like this, it is very apt. One shall hazard then that a particularly Royal smile, with a side order of mockery (not sure one’s siter is pitying of the tyrant) is mayhap likely also of the 7th way. You shall all have an extra petit-four for high tea.
Wrong. If someone else has not put you in there, that means you are not being punished…
…but you still are imprisoned. A prison will always be a prison, regardless of the authorship of your captivity.
Walk into a cell and lock yourself there willingly. If you tell me it is not a prison, but a site of liberty, we’ll both know you are but lying to yourself out of desperation.
‘Prison’ is an old word with varied meanings from time or place. Declaring your own definition THE definition without considering them is dishonest.
I’m accusing you of sophistry.
One is imprisoned if they are confined or involuntarily held captive, and he has confined himself psychologically in a delusion of self control. He doesn’t want his ego stroked, he needs it, just as an example.
Those that speak of “fallacies” are universally misguided.
Classical logic is a tool primarily for self-deceit.
The issue is not with the misuse (fallacies) but with the use, as one can “prove” anything at all, unless one looks to the soundness.
And classical logical arguments are too simplistic to ever be sound in reality. Language is not the building blocks of reality. Words are too abstract and generalized to ever capture real truth.
And what White Chain is doing, is pin-pricking a hole in David’s self-deceit.
He will destroy her form for it, but she has already drawn that drop of blood. It’s just not the physical kind.
It is. But while it may not be strictly true, that doesn’t mean it can’t rhyme with truth, and be useful.
Solomon has arranged the tournament to flush out anyone with the ambition to surpass him, long before they are a real threat. Then he curb-stomps them, all the whole complaining no credible component exists. Well, no sh*t Sherlock. Maybe cultivate some?
The limits to his experience are of his own making.
Coincidentally (or not) that is Himself’s true name too. And all are well recommended to beware of Him. (Or Her. Gender is a matter of momentary preference to a devil.)
Solomon is looking for a replacement, because he wants out. He, by his own words, wishes to leave and he, once again by his own words, says he can’t.
Discipline would be him ruling on in perpetuity without looking for someone to free him from his self imposed duty.
He is in prison.
Solomon is trapped by false beliefs and wants to escape. A Discipline requires a desire to remain. As when Alison showed humility before her master White Chain without any dimming of her key. Thank you MrSing for your insight.
Also to the above comments, I think Solomon enjoys the ‘idea’ of escaping, but he also tournament which he A: controls all the rules and B: changes them on a whim. Solomon enjoys the idea of escaping becuase it fits with the image he’s cultivated for himself of a philosopher king. When in actuality Sol’s using the same tools of every other autocrat and tyrant in history, hell the idea of abandoning the throne to pursue the path of Royalty isn’t even original. To make himself seem enlightened and powerful Sol’s just trying to saying he wants to emulate the most powerful wise man his subjects and rivals know, Zoss.
Finding a worthy successor is a noble goal to to put on like a sweet Gi but this tournament isn’t about that, its about the spectacle of seeming like both an even handed fair ruler while reinforcing the idea that no one can replace him.
He’s either a coward or someone whose putting machiavelli to shame.
I mean…not put to fine a point on it, but the corrosive and limiting nature of systems of oppression is a key thesis of K6BD. Om was an example of someone unwillingly trapped by a system they helped create. Solomon is a more willing participant in his the systems he’s created, but he’s trapped further by his relationships to the other demiurges and his own inflated self image. Like the main man Zoss said, “he who masters the wheel, cannot break it.” Solomon has made a world where he can only ever be a “king”.
You had internets to spare and you gave a full one to this guy? I’m not opposed to giving one to Neva because that was tight. I’m really just surprised you had one. I thought they were all traded for cryptocurrency.
To reiterate, Solomon is violent, not strong. He is so weak that in his violence he fails to realize his weakness. Strength is the power to choose, and Solomon hasn’t truly chosen, in quite some time.
Many who claim strength bear delusions. White Chain has taken blows to her body, but dealt a blow to Solomon’s ego.
How does one bring division to water? The secret is that the answer isn’t force. The blow that cuts water kills angels, and breaks gods, and that blow is not delivered by fist or by sword.
Probably. T’wouldn’t be the strangest method of death dealing I’ve seen in a fight like this.
Though more to Arkwright’s point… I think that we’re about to see what hubris looks like when lodged in the brain of a man who never learned what the Silent Voice tried to teach.
I’m on pins and needles at the edge of my seat, waiting to see what happens next. I just hope that Pree White Chain survives the process of drawing blood from this particularly pride swollen Diamond. . . . . .
Pretty sure 10 Vigilant Gaze demonstrated one way to divide water, landscapes, buildings, and so forth.
Myself, I’d simply freeze the water first and cut it when I saw fit, rather than trying to punch it as my days of foolhardy strength are long past and I am neither as foolish nor as strong as I used to be.
In response to my comment a few may have missed that I have given the riddle of splitting water previously. I *believe* it was, rather auspiciously, during the “War of Teacups”, that I mentioned that my Teacher taught me that bringing division to water requires naught more than two cups.
The blow that cuts water, kills angels, and breaks gods, is not a blow delivered by raw force. Rather, it is the work of peaceable hands, and almost expressly requires that you put down your weapons and unclench your fists.
In the case of bringing division to water, teacups should be handled with care, for to clench your fist as though to strike while holding one could break it, and we with only two hands cannot hold both teacup and teapot, and also a weapon.
In the case of killing angels, breaking their body with a surplus of force does little to threaten their eternally blazing form. In the case of gods, doubtful any among us could muster the force requisite to break them, or else we would likely replace them, fools that we are and power alluring. With this in mind, one must consider a different tact.
The Lesson of Two Teacups, as my master always called it, is that not all problems can be solved with force, and many can be solved more expediently and easily with methods other than force. A gentle touch can answer that which bloodshed never will.
But we are fools and fools are many, and force is one among the few things fools will easily grasp.
A few gentle words can split the heavens where armies fail.
Interesting thing to tack onto there about Solomon’s strength, or lack thereof. Zoss’ statement about strength beyond strength, to pass a flame to others, to make those around her to rise up to the challenges that have brought the wheel to stagnation, but Solomon on the other hand comments about how “it is an age of disorded and weak nations… People have forgotten fealty and tradition.”
I think that Solomon has failed to realise that as someone who controls a seventh of the wheel, the universes and the population, the current state of the world is his fault. He’s failed to build a world that can stand on its own, failed to inspire anyone, failed to allow strength to blossom, failed to bring peace, failed his entire world, a seventh of the wheel, and 111,111 universes.
Worse yet for Solomon is that he doesn’t even have the strength to admit he has made an error, and because of that he is now perpetually trapped in a prison built out of his own expectations for himself. To change now is to admit that he failed somewhere thousands of years ago, and he would rather wait tens of thousands more years for someone to come along who is strong enough to prove him right.
Gots un nagsome feelin us, thum’s pridesome noggin nae e’er acceptin Stoneyarse’s truthsayin, gonnae crush im unnerfoot an be fulfillin ‘is auspicious name. Then be shrugsome o thon ensuin nucularsplosion.
The description also fits to Incubus and White Chain before she met Allison: Stay in your routine and think it is your freedom. Zoss, Jagganoth and Michael, similarly but different – they are still seeking but captivated by an unreachable goal.
Himself and Metatron are the only ones truly free!
It’s a universal condition resulting from the massive power imbalance in this world, and in fact the basic problem of all power imbalance: It makes people less free. The ones with the power to change that are going to have to decide if they want, well, power over everyone, or freedom for everyone. So I think it’s good to make them think about that choice.
I believe this is the third smile of white chain in the comic, I went back at the ‘first’ and re-read the whole thing to look for another instance (a clever ploy by the author to get me to re-read again).
Now it seems white chain has struck a blow against the Ego of the celestial emperor, I can see the blood forming under the bruise. So smile she should, though her job’s not yet done, not a single drop of blood will be drawn with a bruise.
Come now you teevats, you do not get be emperor without meeting a few smug bung-holes whose confidence your personal overachieving makes them think that trite prose and fully beaten horse lacking in functioning limpet systems is going to fold the next time a clone of the same doesn’t just trundle up and belch out more the acrimonious holier-than-thou drivel you have had to hear a thousand times from your so-called “fellows”.
Really; give the emperor a few more panels to fold; A battle of wits and words is just exciting as trading fleshy flakes and sweat particles.
I doubt Solomon will fold. Egos tend to be fragile things, and an entire personal built on ego is precariously placed indeed. Solomon probably hardened his ego to be as diamond to compensate for this, but such hard things are brittle and their failure tends to be sudden and catastrophic. He has already shown stress cracks, revealing he grows weary of his mantle which has only grown heavier over the centuries. A dire warning. This bout may be the final straw, the last grain of rice. He will not fold. He will shatter.
The being who must declare to all who see them that they are indeed the King is in fact nothing of the sort. This observation goes double for those who must use great displays of violence to garner attention in the first place.
A true King attracts attention and followers through the strength of their passion, their vision of a grander life for their people, their desire to live the dreams of their nation.
Have we so quickly forgotten that he is the kind of Emperor to shuck his fine robes and send an over-worked crew of laborers home in order to get his own hands dirty?
Yeah, that was all about his ego. It had nothing to do with true compassion for the laborers. He was playing the part of the benevolent ruler, which he’s been doing for centuries.
“Though you toil and bleed and break your bodies at my command, and must work to build a grand stage upon which I may demonstrate my greatness to the world once again, on this day I come to impress upon you a single truth:
I can, if I so choose, do the full measure of this work myself. I can do so without even the first drop of sweat dampening my brow. And although today, in this place, I choose to do this, tomorrow I will not.
Tomorrow, by my orders, you will resume your meaningless labor. Tomorrow, by my actions, you will have but one thought in your mind: the Emperor could do this himself. But he will not.”
Thats a very dramatic way to put it, and I feel like its quite spot on. I imagine he does want to appear as a benevolent ruler, but for some of his audience I suppose he would want to send that message. The entire Tournament itself is meant to show how pointless fighting him would be, how unassailable he is, why wouldn’t the process of its construction be used to illustrate that too?
And therein lies the flaw of Solomon David. So eager to show, to prove, to demonstrate. So eager to put himself on such a high pedestal. But when one is so high up, tell me:
How does one get down?
He is a slave to the image he has cultivated. He desires to walk the Path of Royalty, but it is so far away from him now. And by his own hands. His pride has raised him to his lofty position.
Solomon was taught Ki Rata, he did not invent it, though he seems to want others to believe it was merely he who achieved his goals. He lies. He had help, he had teachers, he was a student.
If Solomon was altruistic in his goal to find equals, he would train some.
Kiddin hisself be Salami in’t it, nae never wantin nonesuch equal. Oblitered ‘is masters so’s thums couldnae train none other neither, just fer starters.
The final revelation of the Conquering King! And it only took her 82 lifetimes, rather than the infinite recursions that have driven Juggernaut and Metatron completely mad, to get there.
24 Plum Blossoms Dance Under the Messenger's Wings
Is it truly power, one has to wonder, if it will crumble the moment you loosen your grip or glance away? Is it truly order if the absence of one figure will cause it all to scatter?
The monks of Ki Rata knew this. They knew the cost of their power was that it could never be used, lest they become tyrants in the name of fleeting order, of fragile authority. They knew that such might could never be unleashed, even in the defense of others, for once you break the rules for a good reason it’s only a matter of time before they are broken for bad ones.
They chose to lock Ki Rata away with their agency, only using it to prevent anyone else from gaining this power and becoming a tyrant. And now Solomon may finally start to realize that in breaking the rules, he has himself been locked into violence and denied the enlightenment he seeks, lest his false power shatter under his own hand.
The cost of ultimate power is that it can never be used. The cost of gaining ultimate authority is that you can never be free of the responsibility it brings. The cost of being the best is that you must never allow yourself to be at ease, lest someone else claim the title when you least expect it. The only winning move, indeed, is not to play.
In hindsight, the guy REALLY shouldn’t have napped during that part of the training.
And yet tyrants came anyways, and families died, and suns were stolen, planets froze. He saw that the inaction of the monks may have not spawned ki rata trained marauders, but the end result was the same.
No, Solomon’s mistake is that while pledging to seek a replacement to ensure the peace and safety of his people he never thought to foster one, or empower the citizens so they would need no one defender against the rest of the demiurges.
I wonder what an entire empire of ki rata trained citizens could accomplish. If your first instinct is to say, ‘Their own destruction’ then maybe you agree more with Solomon’s actions than you think.
Would it be an Empire though ? With every citizen capable of using Ki Rata, would there be the kind of hierarchy structures that are typical of an Empire ? With no central figure, there would be no cult-of-personality, so would you have an Empire ? or would it be something else ?
It would be the Wild West. Cut me off while driving? I’m following you and Ki Rata-ing you when you stop. Did I brush against you as we passed on the sidewalk and you found it rude? You Ki Rata me for my lack of respect. It’s the ridiculous solution to the second amendment – give everyone a nuclear weapon and hope somehow peace results.
24 Plum Blossoms Dance Under the Messenger's Wings
Indeed they came, and the result was the same no matter what. This is a fact, and I did not intend it to be in defense of the monks; I apologize if my words indicated as much.
I meant it more as… what is that clever human proverb? When all one has is a hammer, every problem looks like a nail? Both the monks and Solomon were trapped by the same power in different ways; the monks through their unwillingness to use it even as worlds died, and Solomon through his inability to do anything BUT use it. As you said, he was so caught up in his own strength that he never thought of fostering a replacement, nor establishing a system he was not in the center of. Why would someone else with the same level of power and influence be any different? Even with the best of intentions, could loosing the might of Ki Rata upon the wheel be anything but devastating?
I have fallen into similar trappings as Solomon myself on occasion, being so focused on perfection that my true goals lie forgotten. Rather than having an empire of Ki Rata masters, each struggling with the weight of that power, would it not be better to foster citizens and leaders who are imperfect but retain their agency, their willingness to concede and collaborate for the good of many? Who are weak, but fight against great power and terrible perfection anyway, simply because people are suffering and someone must act?
The unfortunate reality they find themselves in is there are 6 other beasts at the borders, and the realistic assumption is if Solomon steps down without leaving behind some equivalently devastating deterrent, no matter how finely principled and successful at the higher ideals of society building his former subjects are they will be wiped out or subjugated.
Even worse since survival right now depends on at least some nominal cooperation with at least 5 of those beasts against the six.
White Chain seems to imply that the moral thing would be to let things get messy and the chips fall where they may, because at least then there is the chance for history to move forward. One though seeks to undo creation. I guess an eventual new creation would count as history moving forward, but I do not fault the citizens of the now if they preferred not to sacrifice themselves en masse for someone else’s idealism and an unknown world’s possible benefit.
“Is it truly power, one has to wonder, if it will crumble the moment you loosen your grip or glance away? Is it truly order if the absence of one figure will cause it all to scatter?”
It quite literally is. Solomon’s glorious empire was formed, sustained, and stabilized by his power, it is a byproduct of his existence and operates in accordance to his will. Naturally, it breaks down when separated from him, just as a machine ceases to function when deprived of its battery.
You’re describing omnipotence not mere power.
The majority of people here very clearly furiously wracking their brains trying to fabricate sage insights to put in the comments but, predictably, achieve the opposite effect every time.
Haven’t we come too far to have Solomon crumble – or even be distracted – by someone saying he has a big ego? White Chain is likely not the first person to say so. That smile of hers says she knows something we don’t.
Missed notice: When did WC stop speaking by using precise literal wording (like can not and you are) and start using contractions (like can’t and you’re)? Was it recently? Who did the corrupting?
I read back a bit. WC has been using contractions for ages, but mainly in informal conversation. Official Angel Business gets the formal grammar. Now, she’s engaged in the most important fight of her existence, and her words are relaxed, almost intimate.
Our humble wax head seems to be gathering quite the group of bards, all eager to ply their trade.. It makes me wonder if this is the purpose for which it was cast, or just a happy accident.
I personally am really hoping in the next book, Allison will make it into the Tower of Zoss, and the rhyming wax head will get a cameo, sitting on a shelf in there.
Somehow the last panel looks less like White Chain’s armor form and more like her void form. I don’t know what it is, but I like it. She looks like herself.
His hands are behind his back, but his heart is in her mouth.
He smiles because he believes himself happy.
She smiles because he’s such a joke.
She said see you later, boy. He wasn’t good enough for her.
Oh my. The memories.
That song was awful and the singer always came across like an asshole who was making fun of her boyfriend’s high school crush because she wasn’t interested in him when they where in high school.
The whole thing just raises some troubling questions.
Why is she so intimidated by his ex, that there is an actual song about it?
Why is he so hung up on this snobbish preppy girl that all his future girlfriends have to hear about her?
Why is it acceptable for the lower classes to sing and dance for the entertainment of the upper classes, but not to romance them?
Can anyone enlighten in which way one’s sister is smiling. One has little experience in this regard obviously.
It is a particularly ROYAL smile.
To wit, a cutting one.
Some blades cut from within.
One does like this, it is very apt. One shall hazard then that a particularly Royal smile, with a side order of mockery (not sure one’s siter is pitying of the tyrant) is mayhap likely also of the 7th way. You shall all have an extra petit-four for high tea.
I think he is mocking him, and feels pitty for him. The smile reinforces what he told him about being a prisioner
Not sure if Black Chain deliberately uses pronouns opposite to what White Chain’s friends do, or if just coincidence.
Smiling in the 7th way perhaps.
A futile remark. Any order is a prison, you just accept it willingly or not.
If you are ignorant of the prison you made yourself, for yourself, can it be willingly accepted?
It’s not a prison unless someone else has put you there against your will.
— Her argument is laden with logical-fallacies and semantic sophistry.
Wrong. If someone else has not put you in there, that means you are not being punished…
…but you still are imprisoned. A prison will always be a prison, regardless of the authorship of your captivity.
Walk into a cell and lock yourself there willingly. If you tell me it is not a prison, but a site of liberty, we’ll both know you are but lying to yourself out of desperation.
Life is a prison from which we all escape.
From one cell, to another.
White-chain is redefining the term on-the-fly to suit her argument. That is the essence of sophistry.
‘Prison’ is an old word with varied meanings from time or place. Declaring your own definition THE definition without considering them is dishonest.
I’m accusing you of sophistry.
One is imprisoned if they are confined or involuntarily held captive, and he has confined himself psychologically in a delusion of self control. He doesn’t want his ego stroked, he needs it, just as an example.
Those that speak of “fallacies” are universally misguided.
Classical logic is a tool primarily for self-deceit.
The issue is not with the misuse (fallacies) but with the use, as one can “prove” anything at all, unless one looks to the soundness.
And classical logical arguments are too simplistic to ever be sound in reality. Language is not the building blocks of reality. Words are too abstract and generalized to ever capture real truth.
And what White Chain is doing, is pin-pricking a hole in David’s self-deceit.
He will destroy her form for it, but she has already drawn that drop of blood. It’s just not the physical kind.
She pricks him, does he not bleed?
She’ll tickle him next.
If tha tickles him does him nae laugh?
Nay, he nae laugh. He might well fashion your lungs into immaculate origami giraffes, but I do not foresee the man’s laughter.
And the lack of a prick and resulting blood (double entendre?) is the whole reason for this debacle.
White-chain is redefining terms on-the-fly to suit her argument. That is the essence of sophistry.
Did you just refute Sophistry in an attempt to argue against someone disparaging Sophistry?
I’m actually not sure what you are trying to accomplish here.
I refuted the potential for soundness of classical logic and thereby pointed out the futility of fallacy-spotting.
Since logic is without uses, it’s pointless to guard it against misuse.
Fallacious arguments are worth as much as valid ones: Nothing.
Very well. Not a prison then.
A pit.
It is. But while it may not be strictly true, that doesn’t mean it can’t rhyme with truth, and be useful.
Solomon has arranged the tournament to flush out anyone with the ambition to surpass him, long before they are a real threat. Then he curb-stomps them, all the whole complaining no credible component exists. Well, no sh*t Sherlock. Maybe cultivate some?
The limits to his experience are of his own making.
Beware the Grand Enemy, who is called I, daring one.
She is always just a little faster on the draw than you.
Coincidentally (or not) that is Himself’s true name too. And all are well recommended to beware of Him. (Or Her. Gender is a matter of momentary preference to a devil.)
What then is the difference between a willing Prison (or a pit) and a Discipline? Both are a self-imposed limiting of options. What say ye?
Solomon is looking for a replacement, because he wants out. He, by his own words, wishes to leave and he, once again by his own words, says he can’t.
Discipline would be him ruling on in perpetuity without looking for someone to free him from his self imposed duty.
He is in prison.
Solomon is trapped by false beliefs and wants to escape. A Discipline requires a desire to remain. As when Alison showed humility before her master White Chain without any dimming of her key. Thank you MrSing for your insight.
Also to the above comments, I think Solomon enjoys the ‘idea’ of escaping, but he also tournament which he A: controls all the rules and B: changes them on a whim. Solomon enjoys the idea of escaping becuase it fits with the image he’s cultivated for himself of a philosopher king. When in actuality Sol’s using the same tools of every other autocrat and tyrant in history, hell the idea of abandoning the throne to pursue the path of Royalty isn’t even original. To make himself seem enlightened and powerful Sol’s just trying to saying he wants to emulate the most powerful wise man his subjects and rivals know, Zoss.
Finding a worthy successor is a noble goal to to put on like a sweet Gi but this tournament isn’t about that, its about the spectacle of seeming like both an even handed fair ruler while reinforcing the idea that no one can replace him.
He’s either a coward or someone whose putting machiavelli to shame.
At it’s most optimistic, a prison serves to teach you a lesson.
A discipline serves to teach you a lesson that you already know.
“Fate is not a cage except for those who fear it.”
The Universe is a Prison for a man who cannot abide in it.
I mean…not put to fine a point on it, but the corrosive and limiting nature of systems of oppression is a key thesis of K6BD. Om was an example of someone unwillingly trapped by a system they helped create. Solomon is a more willing participant in his the systems he’s created, but he’s trapped further by his relationships to the other demiurges and his own inflated self image. Like the main man Zoss said, “he who masters the wheel, cannot break it.” Solomon has made a world where he can only ever be a “king”.
If you love it, let it go.
Rejoice in disorder, then.
I do
Relinquish the illusion of control, and accept the unacceptable;
Some things are inevitable, and some of them are bad.
Beware, for when an angel smiles, they know what you are afraid to hear.
82 White Chain Born In Emptiness Returns To Call the Old Man Out
Here’s your Internet. Congratulations. You won it fair and square.
You had internets to spare and you gave a full one to this guy? I’m not opposed to giving one to Neva because that was tight. I’m really just surprised you had one. I thought they were all traded for cryptocurrency.
No amount of crypto-mining will ever earn you even one Internet.
Depending on how you mined it, you might even Lose one.
Or two.
To reiterate, Solomon is violent, not strong. He is so weak that in his violence he fails to realize his weakness. Strength is the power to choose, and Solomon hasn’t truly chosen, in quite some time.
Many who claim strength bear delusions. White Chain has taken blows to her body, but dealt a blow to Solomon’s ego.
How does one bring division to water? The secret is that the answer isn’t force. The blow that cuts water kills angels, and breaks gods, and that blow is not delivered by fist or by sword.
I mean if asked, I would divide water by placing a dam in it. Or alternatively separate the water into to different vessels.
FSo can a break gods with a kettle?
Mayhap a teapot.
Especially a Celestial Teapot. Those things are lethal to delusions.
Oblique references to Russell’s teapot, noted and appreciated.
Probably. T’wouldn’t be the strangest method of death dealing I’ve seen in a fight like this.
Though more to Arkwright’s point… I think that we’re about to see what hubris looks like when lodged in the brain of a man who never learned what the Silent Voice tried to teach.
I’m on pins and needles at the edge of my seat, waiting to see what happens next. I just hope that Pree White Chain survives the process of drawing blood from this particularly pride swollen Diamond. . . . . .
I would suggest freezing water to shatter it.
Pretty sure 10 Vigilant Gaze demonstrated one way to divide water, landscapes, buildings, and so forth.
Myself, I’d simply freeze the water first and cut it when I saw fit, rather than trying to punch it as my days of foolhardy strength are long past and I am neither as foolish nor as strong as I used to be.
Electrolysis, that’s my preferred method of dividing water.
It’s amazing what you can achieve with a car battery and a set of jump leads.
In response to my comment a few may have missed that I have given the riddle of splitting water previously. I *believe* it was, rather auspiciously, during the “War of Teacups”, that I mentioned that my Teacher taught me that bringing division to water requires naught more than two cups.
The blow that cuts water, kills angels, and breaks gods, is not a blow delivered by raw force. Rather, it is the work of peaceable hands, and almost expressly requires that you put down your weapons and unclench your fists.
In the case of bringing division to water, teacups should be handled with care, for to clench your fist as though to strike while holding one could break it, and we with only two hands cannot hold both teacup and teapot, and also a weapon.
In the case of killing angels, breaking their body with a surplus of force does little to threaten their eternally blazing form. In the case of gods, doubtful any among us could muster the force requisite to break them, or else we would likely replace them, fools that we are and power alluring. With this in mind, one must consider a different tact.
The Lesson of Two Teacups, as my master always called it, is that not all problems can be solved with force, and many can be solved more expediently and easily with methods other than force. A gentle touch can answer that which bloodshed never will.
But we are fools and fools are many, and force is one among the few things fools will easily grasp.
A few gentle words can split the heavens where armies fail.
Beware the swordsman who carries no blade.
Thank you for explaining that. I must have missed your older comment, but I rather like this riddle and am glad to have seen it here.
Interesting thing to tack onto there about Solomon’s strength, or lack thereof. Zoss’ statement about strength beyond strength, to pass a flame to others, to make those around her to rise up to the challenges that have brought the wheel to stagnation, but Solomon on the other hand comments about how “it is an age of disorded and weak nations… People have forgotten fealty and tradition.”
I think that Solomon has failed to realise that as someone who controls a seventh of the wheel, the universes and the population, the current state of the world is his fault. He’s failed to build a world that can stand on its own, failed to inspire anyone, failed to allow strength to blossom, failed to bring peace, failed his entire world, a seventh of the wheel, and 111,111 universes.
Worse yet for Solomon is that he doesn’t even have the strength to admit he has made an error, and because of that he is now perpetually trapped in a prison built out of his own expectations for himself. To change now is to admit that he failed somewhere thousands of years ago, and he would rather wait tens of thousands more years for someone to come along who is strong enough to prove him right.
Solomon is strong.
He just mistakes that for something worth being.
Interesting. Something’s about to break and I don’t think it’s White Chain.
Gots un nagsome feelin us, thum’s pridesome noggin nae e’er acceptin Stoneyarse’s truthsayin, gonnae crush im unnerfoot an be fulfillin ‘is auspicious name. Then be shrugsome o thon ensuin nucularsplosion.
How many has the king seen look up at him not with fear or acceptance, but the smug satisfaction of victory?
Not many, I would wager.
Provocation…
Yeah, get him angry- I’m sure that won’t have ANY negative repercussions.
When angry just take deep breaths…
White Chain’s description certainly applies just as well to Mottom and the Gramd Dragon. Seems like a nice reusable aphorism!
The description also fits to Incubus and White Chain before she met Allison: Stay in your routine and think it is your freedom. Zoss, Jagganoth and Michael, similarly but different – they are still seeking but captivated by an unreachable goal.
Himself and Metatron are the only ones truly free!
It’s a universal condition resulting from the massive power imbalance in this world, and in fact the basic problem of all power imbalance: It makes people less free. The ones with the power to change that are going to have to decide if they want, well, power over everyone, or freedom for everyone. So I think it’s good to make them think about that choice.
I believe this is the third smile of white chain in the comic, I went back at the ‘first’ and re-read the whole thing to look for another instance (a clever ploy by the author to get me to re-read again).
Now it seems white chain has struck a blow against the Ego of the celestial emperor, I can see the blood forming under the bruise. So smile she should, though her job’s not yet done, not a single drop of blood will be drawn with a bruise.
Come now you teevats, you do not get be emperor without meeting a few smug bung-holes whose confidence your personal overachieving makes them think that trite prose and fully beaten horse lacking in functioning limpet systems is going to fold the next time a clone of the same doesn’t just trundle up and belch out more the acrimonious holier-than-thou drivel you have had to hear a thousand times from your so-called “fellows”.
Really; give the emperor a few more panels to fold; A battle of wits and words is just exciting as trading fleshy flakes and sweat particles.
I doubt Solomon will fold. Egos tend to be fragile things, and an entire personal built on ego is precariously placed indeed. Solomon probably hardened his ego to be as diamond to compensate for this, but such hard things are brittle and their failure tends to be sudden and catastrophic. He has already shown stress cracks, revealing he grows weary of his mantle which has only grown heavier over the centuries. A dire warning. This bout may be the final straw, the last grain of rice. He will not fold. He will shatter.
The being who must declare to all who see them that they are indeed the King is in fact nothing of the sort. This observation goes double for those who must use great displays of violence to garner attention in the first place.
A true King attracts attention and followers through the strength of their passion, their vision of a grander life for their people, their desire to live the dreams of their nation.
Have we so quickly forgotten that he is the kind of Emperor to shuck his fine robes and send an over-worked crew of laborers home in order to get his own hands dirty?
Although, true, he made a show of that, too…
Yeah, that was all about his ego. It had nothing to do with true compassion for the laborers. He was playing the part of the benevolent ruler, which he’s been doing for centuries.
“Though you toil and bleed and break your bodies at my command, and must work to build a grand stage upon which I may demonstrate my greatness to the world once again, on this day I come to impress upon you a single truth:
I can, if I so choose, do the full measure of this work myself. I can do so without even the first drop of sweat dampening my brow. And although today, in this place, I choose to do this, tomorrow I will not.
Tomorrow, by my orders, you will resume your meaningless labor. Tomorrow, by my actions, you will have but one thought in your mind: the Emperor could do this himself. But he will not.”
Thats a very dramatic way to put it, and I feel like its quite spot on. I imagine he does want to appear as a benevolent ruler, but for some of his audience I suppose he would want to send that message. The entire Tournament itself is meant to show how pointless fighting him would be, how unassailable he is, why wouldn’t the process of its construction be used to illustrate that too?
And therein lies the flaw of Solomon David. So eager to show, to prove, to demonstrate. So eager to put himself on such a high pedestal. But when one is so high up, tell me:
How does one get down?
He is a slave to the image he has cultivated. He desires to walk the Path of Royalty, but it is so far away from him now. And by his own hands. His pride has raised him to his lofty position.
And it is there that he has met his downfall.
Solomon was taught Ki Rata, he did not invent it, though he seems to want others to believe it was merely he who achieved his goals. He lies. He had help, he had teachers, he was a student.
If Solomon was altruistic in his goal to find equals, he would train some.
Kiddin hisself be Salami in’t it, nae never wantin nonesuch equal. Oblitered ‘is masters so’s thums couldnae train none other neither, just fer starters.
The final revelation of the Conquering King! And it only took her 82 lifetimes, rather than the infinite recursions that have driven Juggernaut and Metatron completely mad, to get there.
Is it truly power, one has to wonder, if it will crumble the moment you loosen your grip or glance away? Is it truly order if the absence of one figure will cause it all to scatter?
The monks of Ki Rata knew this. They knew the cost of their power was that it could never be used, lest they become tyrants in the name of fleeting order, of fragile authority. They knew that such might could never be unleashed, even in the defense of others, for once you break the rules for a good reason it’s only a matter of time before they are broken for bad ones.
They chose to lock Ki Rata away with their agency, only using it to prevent anyone else from gaining this power and becoming a tyrant. And now Solomon may finally start to realize that in breaking the rules, he has himself been locked into violence and denied the enlightenment he seeks, lest his false power shatter under his own hand.
The cost of ultimate power is that it can never be used. The cost of gaining ultimate authority is that you can never be free of the responsibility it brings. The cost of being the best is that you must never allow yourself to be at ease, lest someone else claim the title when you least expect it. The only winning move, indeed, is not to play.
In hindsight, the guy REALLY shouldn’t have napped during that part of the training.
And yet tyrants came anyways, and families died, and suns were stolen, planets froze. He saw that the inaction of the monks may have not spawned ki rata trained marauders, but the end result was the same.
No, Solomon’s mistake is that while pledging to seek a replacement to ensure the peace and safety of his people he never thought to foster one, or empower the citizens so they would need no one defender against the rest of the demiurges.
I wonder what an entire empire of ki rata trained citizens could accomplish. If your first instinct is to say, ‘Their own destruction’ then maybe you agree more with Solomon’s actions than you think.
Would it be an Empire though ? With every citizen capable of using Ki Rata, would there be the kind of hierarchy structures that are typical of an Empire ? With no central figure, there would be no cult-of-personality, so would you have an Empire ? or would it be something else ?
It would be the Wild West. Cut me off while driving? I’m following you and Ki Rata-ing you when you stop. Did I brush against you as we passed on the sidewalk and you found it rude? You Ki Rata me for my lack of respect. It’s the ridiculous solution to the second amendment – give everyone a nuclear weapon and hope somehow peace results.
Indeed they came, and the result was the same no matter what. This is a fact, and I did not intend it to be in defense of the monks; I apologize if my words indicated as much.
I meant it more as… what is that clever human proverb? When all one has is a hammer, every problem looks like a nail? Both the monks and Solomon were trapped by the same power in different ways; the monks through their unwillingness to use it even as worlds died, and Solomon through his inability to do anything BUT use it. As you said, he was so caught up in his own strength that he never thought of fostering a replacement, nor establishing a system he was not in the center of. Why would someone else with the same level of power and influence be any different? Even with the best of intentions, could loosing the might of Ki Rata upon the wheel be anything but devastating?
I have fallen into similar trappings as Solomon myself on occasion, being so focused on perfection that my true goals lie forgotten. Rather than having an empire of Ki Rata masters, each struggling with the weight of that power, would it not be better to foster citizens and leaders who are imperfect but retain their agency, their willingness to concede and collaborate for the good of many? Who are weak, but fight against great power and terrible perfection anyway, simply because people are suffering and someone must act?
The unfortunate reality they find themselves in is there are 6 other beasts at the borders, and the realistic assumption is if Solomon steps down without leaving behind some equivalently devastating deterrent, no matter how finely principled and successful at the higher ideals of society building his former subjects are they will be wiped out or subjugated.
Even worse since survival right now depends on at least some nominal cooperation with at least 5 of those beasts against the six.
White Chain seems to imply that the moral thing would be to let things get messy and the chips fall where they may, because at least then there is the chance for history to move forward. One though seeks to undo creation. I guess an eventual new creation would count as history moving forward, but I do not fault the citizens of the now if they preferred not to sacrifice themselves en masse for someone else’s idealism and an unknown world’s possible benefit.
“Is it truly power, one has to wonder, if it will crumble the moment you loosen your grip or glance away? Is it truly order if the absence of one figure will cause it all to scatter?”
It quite literally is. Solomon’s glorious empire was formed, sustained, and stabilized by his power, it is a byproduct of his existence and operates in accordance to his will. Naturally, it breaks down when separated from him, just as a machine ceases to function when deprived of its battery.
You’re describing omnipotence not mere power.
The majority of people here very clearly furiously wracking their brains trying to fabricate sage insights to put in the comments but, predictably, achieve the opposite effect every time.
White Chain’s plan was to make him bleed emotionally all along!
Diamond cannot be scratched, but it is easily crushed.
It’s also quite combustible, being all carbon like coal.
Ahh, yes. The often referenced Mic-drop cut. Can often come out of nowhere.
Haven’t we come too far to have Solomon crumble – or even be distracted – by someone saying he has a big ego? White Chain is likely not the first person to say so. That smile of hers says she knows something we don’t.
Un happysome martyr at peace wi thumself, efter many a long kalpa.
“Why don’t you just put the whole world in a bottle, Superman?”
Very good.
Alright, did some googling. Yeah this very good
Missed notice: When did WC stop speaking by using precise literal wording (like can not and you are) and start using contractions (like can’t and you’re)? Was it recently? Who did the corrupting?
I guess you can’t room with two demons and a barista for one year without some of it rubbing off on you.
Yes she does sound a bit like Alison there. What a neat role reversal.
I read back a bit. WC has been using contractions for ages, but mainly in informal conversation. Official Angel Business gets the formal grammar. Now, she’s engaged in the most important fight of her existence, and her words are relaxed, almost intimate.
Would you not be relaxed, knowing your opponent defeated themselves long before the battle began?
Cheers, master.
Two things: Thing the first, typo in panel 4 balloon 4 “I not wish to destroy…”
Thing the second, White chain reminds me of Incubus here, all wicked smiles and words that wound more than fists.
A cruel smile burns
Embers of white fire blazing
Laughing she strikes first
The shire horse, not coloured dun
isn’t meant to play for fun
But smiling softly as you’ve won
The tournament is grinding on
But good King David’s smile is gone
Why the long face, Solomon?
If children aren’t allowed to grow
Blame not the seed but them that sow
Best cut all clean with a right quick mow
Our humble wax head seems to be gathering quite the group of bards, all eager to ply their trade.. It makes me wonder if this is the purpose for which it was cast, or just a happy accident.
I personally am really hoping in the next book, Allison will make it into the Tower of Zoss, and the rhyming wax head will get a cameo, sitting on a shelf in there.
I believe White Chain is speaking from experience when talking about building a prison for ones self and being proud of it.
and that is (part of) why it had to be her.
I fucking love this Comment!!!!!!!
It is a fair proposition, the only way to beat him is to kill him, and if you kill him you get to become king and make the rules.
What else is there to discuss?
No. The rules of the game are that you win if you draw even one drop of his blood. Killing him would be overkill.
LITERALLY.
White Chain Smile Count: 2
Somehow the last panel looks less like White Chain’s armor form and more like her void form. I don’t know what it is, but I like it. She looks like herself.
The “blood”(?) splatter is also vaguely reminiscent of her freckles.