KING OF SWORDS 10-156
Chapter: 10
“When the rage of the princes of the world could no longer be contained within their golden bodies, it spilled out into the land.
Thus also with their sorrow.”
– Glass Scroll, SC 45
Kill Six Billion Demons
Seeker of Thrones
I’M NOT WORRIED AT ALL *weeps*
I believe in her
She’s like Connor MacGregor.
Punching her in the face until she bleeds only makes her stronger.
I don’t know which Conor McGregor you’ve watched but it certainly doesnt sound like the one I’ve watched.
Didn’t really work like that against Mayweather, but sure.
Then again, that was a boxing match, not MMA and McGregor did manage 10 rounds before the TKO – which is impressive for an MMA fighter used to shorter fights. So maybe there is some truth…
Unless your name is Khabib “I will smesh your boy” Nurmagomedov
TBQH that sounds more like Connor MacLeod to me.
…One problem with that strategy: she has TWO bodies.
She pulled her soul back in in the last page.
She Did?! I had to go back and look, and you’re right, it’s there in panel 2, but it’s a bit hard to see. With soul and body together again, Solomon really has got White Chain by the throat. What next, cupcake?
Don’t worry y’all I think she has him on the ropes
She’ll finish him off any second now… any second…
None have ever overcome the ancient technique of ‘get my stone ass handed to me over and over.’ My strategy is foolproof!
I’m bleeding, making me the victor.
He’s got her surrounded, that poor basterd.
“We’re surrounded!”
“Excellent, now we can fire in any direction!”
Honestly you’re not wrong, she’s only in this situation to talk shit to Dave’s face as an un-killable angel, it’s not like she’s trying for his kingdom or at risk of true death. Solomon is trying in vain to make a physical beatdown count as a rhetorical one, and all White Chain needs to do to draw blood from Solomon’s ego is remain unconvinced and keep calling his shit. So what if she gets knocked into the void, she can come back and remind him Zoss hits harder, and he’s got no response. This matchup only works out for him if he’s fighting another mortal, or a really easily impressed immortal.
WC can now safely detonate without enveloping the crowd in the arena, big boy Solomon has trimmed his last beard.
This is fine. 🙂
*thousand yard stare*
*purple flame engulfes the background*
the prisoner observes the breadth of his jail, and marvels, for every inch of his craftsmanship is without parallel
One cannot conquer one’s own defeat.
I highly doubt that tyrants like him need to exist. But Solomon David has not realised that one can protect without ruling. For that to be acknowledged, the diamond must be shattered.
Monologuing once again, I see. If only someone would provide some kind of distraction.
Gosh, I wonder what Jagganoth’s been up to all this time?
Forget about that guy, what’s been Gog-Agog doing off panel? this is technically her plan.
Yon Bearer o The Word ‘Blade’? Most likesome thum’s been, erm, mekkin more blades?
Jagganoth?
Cutting, of course.
how did you know? are you just abbadon posting under an anonymous username? lmao
don’t worry guys i think she’s got this
Each strike also comes with various public domain sound effects, such as glass shattering, doors slamming, and the hanna-barbera running noise.
Why public domain?
What, you think the studio’s made of money?
*The studio is just dozens of Gogs-Agog in various cubicles and such.
Dozens? HUNDREDS!
Trillions
The devourer of worlds
The cubicles are also Gogs-Agog.
Most, but a few are mimics that escaped from the Vault.
In a surprise twist, the mimics are also Gog Agog.
Lo, the King gazes upon his prison of his own making and doubts.
Lo, the fires an cinders of the world as a diamond cracks.
Lo, the Red God cometh, and he brings the blade that may topple the Throne of Kings.
I don’t think Solomon monologues just to anyone. He’s a man of spectacle and this reads as a private confession, a moment of truth shown to someone who will take it to their grave
Except he is confessing to a being that is 100% guaranteed not to die…
Yeah, but angels forget stuff when they reincarnate so it’s probably cool.
“Fool, did you not just say ‘I am my own justification’? Men like you need never exist, except that you choose to. You made your prison, you can break free of it.”
impetus
The only reason for men like you to exist, is because of men like you.
And Mottom, Jadis, and the anthropomorphic wannabe?
Thousand fists echoing flame
Different art in all but name
Diamond broke through diamond wall
Facet shows where no eye falls
Angel gripped in tyrant’s hand,
Gaze forlorn upon the land.
To the skies the battle calls,
One shall stand and one shall fall.
the peak is lonely as it stands above all. one would wish to be among the land but realize that they are an extension of the lend itself.
So she’s playing him right? trying to catch him while hes monologuing?
Exactly! Then she skewers him with a devastating retort.
“Then the [Demiurge] took [her] up and showed [her] in a second all the kingdoms of the world.”
White Chain is a mercurial fighter; her strength is concealed and she waits for her moment to strike. Pree Aesma, lend your fell strength to her hand.
An angel may be defeated, but not killed, not permanently, and we do not know how long one needs to be dormant before it resurrects.
We do know that the amount of time between incarnations has something to do with it. The Primes had been existing since their beginning without incarnating for something approaching an eon before Zoss knocked them out. Whatever length of time that was, it was far longer than the time between Zoss and the present day and there’s no sense of expecting the Primes to wake up anytime soon.
Doesn’t really explain 2 Michael, but we don’t know the full story behind him.
As long as one spent alive in this reincarnation; which is why all but two of the Primes are all still dormant. This should not be long with White Chain, as she has the highest number of reincarnations of all.
I knew Solomon was a self serving tyrannical power house but I never figured he’d be this high on his own supply of bullshit. Tyranny is the least necessary expenditure of power imaginable, as for every minute you may dedicate to protecting your people you must spend five more crushing them back into your iron grip. A true ruler lives and protects by example not by the instruction of the rod.
Thus is he tainted with pride. The lure of tyranny is felt when you assume you know best, and thus your decisions over the lives of many are the most right.
Sounds like a certain orange faced yellow haired leader, but I suppose one should make a distinction between narcissism and pride.
Sadly, those afflicted with hubristic pride are often also afflicted with narcissism.
An iron grip is necessary when Gog-Agog is constantly assimilating your citizens in the background.
I don’t get why Solomon is so bad. He pompous, but rightfully so. He’s created societies where people adore him, and he’s saved worlds. He brags, because he’s right.
Solomon, like all other demiurges, created a society which fully depends on him. Thus with his demise his creation will fall apart, devastating many lives in the process. That alone makes Solomon as “bad” as every other empire-builder, Zoss included. At least Zoss recognised his mistake before it comes and bites his conquering ass.
What manner of construct did Solomon launch through in panel 6?
It is a sort of hanging canopy or pallium that is suspended over their fighting rink
The old rope a dope! She’s got him right where she wants him!
Ooh but din’t Stoneyarse rawsome hit a nerve. Set ol’ SalamiDrawers right off.
Perhaps from that height I could find my way home.
*MONOLOGUE INTENSIFIES*
Ah, as I said…t’was simply delaying the inevitable. If she can pull victory from such a grim position, it’d be a right miracle.
Angels and miracles? At the same time? I’ve never even heard of such a thing.
abaddon I love you but please don’t have this end with solomon accidentally getting nicked on the hand for not noticing his surroundings or something i literally beg you
Unusually sharp bird flies into floating Solomon.
Bird now Emperor.
All hail Emperor Bird, Lord of the Skies!
Have faith, lost one. Our Storyteller is exceptionally skilled, and will certainly wring more drama from this moment than a bit of flying glass.
I don’t believe we have yet heard the last from Ms. Chain.
So many wish to see the emperor fall so much that they claim that White Chain has this all in hand. I wonder, when the emperor breaks her shell into a thousand pieces, will that be enough for you all to see?
Why are so many people here rooting for Solomon? He’s the antagonist of the story, not to mention a huge douchebag.
He’s hot and confident, and that makes him likable. I hope that he joins the team as WC’s replacement because I just want to see more of him and his glorious beard 🙂
One can acknowledge an approaching horror without rooting for said horror.
White Chain’s prospects are truly grim. I tremble for her, and I hold no joy in the Tyrant’s likely victory.
Pray tell, how can White Chain, clinging as she is to the tenets of the Old Law, established aeons ago by beings foreign to anything happening at present, claim moral superiority over David Solomon, clinging as he is to self-established law that saw his portion of the multiverse prosper?
Prosper? Only in the manner of the Arab emirates.
An intense interest in civil affairs doesn’t excuse making his world a bureaucratic hell just to satisfy his obsession with control. His subjects fear him and his kingdom I’d wager is stagnating be with his feet. I don’t think he’d appreciate any innovation or creativity. Why does his physical might need to hold his empire together when, say, Rome never had that problem?
He claims to be looking for a successor while actively discouraging the growth of leaders. His sons are all useless, and he’s only believed might makes right since he’s believed himself the mightiest.
He is a coward, hypocrite, and fool.
Prosper in the manner that worlds under the last Demiurges can prosper at all, with the civilians living in peace and wealth, rather than being slaughtered like cattle or seeing their worlds scoured of anything valuable for their distant overlord until nothing remains but bare rock.
He needs physical might to hold his empire together because human societies need physical might to be held together. White Chain for one is an embodiment of that need, given shape and form by the gods to enforce their will, in the shape of the Old Law. The only difference between her and any of Solomon’s jackbooted enforcers is that her masters are long dead, and their Law long outdated.
Roman Republic constantly needed force of arms to be held together; Roman Empire fought its own more often than not. And had there been a man like Solomon David there, perhaps there would’ve been no Dark Ages.
Solomon David believes that might makes right because this is what the fate of his world taught him. If anything, he can be said to have reached Heaven through violence, as much as any living man.
Indeed, there would be no Dark Ages while Solomon still lives. But there would be such Ages if (when?) he leaves, and there can be neither Renaissance nor Enlightenment before he does.
The Dark Ages (in Europe) produced little of importance, and lost much of what has been produced earlier. However, they provided the nessecary decentralization of knowledge (monks, books, universities) and decentralization of power (kings, vassals, priests).
The glittering perfection of the Diamond is stagnation. A glittering stagnation, but stagnation still, it can never improve. A stagnant society is as crippled as a failed one when viewed from outside its time, even though from the inside of its time it seem good and pleasant to live in. It is also a society that will inevitably be overthrown by other societies that glitter far less and are even repugnant, but still have the ability to improve.
I cannot omit that several other Watchers watch in anticipation of the moves of the one Prince of the world that has shown the ability to improve. Based on what I’ve said so far, it seems they are right to watch this one carefully.
(As an aside, do not mistake Solomon’s comments on Royalty for progress. He may claim to be second only to the Conqueror on the path towards Royalty, but he will not be able to travel in any direction along this path while he still has his Pride. Perhaps this is why he must find a successor before dedicating his life to Royalty: it is the only way to shatter the Diamond, his Pride.)
I see Solomon David as someone who was severely wounded by the death of his family and his entire world, while the people who could have prevented all that did nothing. From that he has come to believe that HE is all that stands between his people and utter destruction. Of course, this makes it impossible for him to EVER allow change, because the only one he can trust is himself. He has created a perfect trap for himself.
We’ve seen the rest of The Seven, and we’ve seen the guilds that rule where The Seven do not. It would not be an exaggeration to say that Solomon David IS the only thing that stands between his people and murderous exploitation, slavery, and death. Far as he is from perfect, the alternatives are lethally worse.
spoken like a true sycophant
I don’t think the subs are even denying that they’re sick for Dave’s Salami, at this point.
The internet is thirsty.
If he does break the angels shell none of us will be able to see shit on account of the nuclear explosion that occurs when you do finally destroy their armour.
Liar.
Upvote
Observant
There, now that Solomon is so far away from innocent bystanders, White Chain can detonate her body like we’ve seen the thorn knight angel do (“MIS-TAKE!”) etc.
Bet that’ll draw a drop of blood or two.
That detonation awsn’t intentional, Juggernaut had literally been split in two all in one go for that to happen.
While I’d like to observe this… I do not believe that the detonation will be sufficient. It failed to kill Maya, and she was, while impressive in many regards, nowhere near as resilient as Solomon David.
Butch Coolidge: That’s how you’re gonna beat ’em, Butch. They keep underestimating you.
What I like about this is that Jagganoth is infinitely more terrifying than David allegedly.
Come on Dave, you are busting the sidereal martial arts out over a celestial martial artist, its not a good look
Looks more like a good old fashioned Principle of Motion beatdown to me.
Still not the best look
Won’t get my hopes up, but spiteful ironies are favorite.
30, 29, 28…
I see this as a story catalyzing event, not a triumph for Team Allison.
White Chain has, until now, been a very regimented and staid source enforced moderation and dogmatic observance, and has been teaching Allison in the virtues of such regimented training this entire time. (this teaches a fighter about how to manage their reserves, how to endure pain, how to harden the will against an imposing source of chaos, so that the will does not succumb, etc. These are all valuable skills to a fighter.)
However, that role will likely change. Destruction of the physical shell will just push White Chain out onto the void, and onto the king’s road. Allison has unlimited access to this area, but has not really exercised that power except accidentally in the past. The destruction of white chain’s shell will give imperative to grow that ability and master it, without the notion of conquest being the imperative. Further, it will drive home very profound lessons early on about the Demiurges, and the worldview they ascribe to. Lessons that will teach Allison to deny that worldview– And further, the opposition of such by WhiteChain, in counter-balance to the staid conformity and ideological inflexibility of her brothers, will further catalyze White Chain’s transformation into something no angel has ever been before.
It will also send Allison on a physically and spiritually demanding journey to regain her lost companion, further demonstrating that a human is not just something to be protected like an animal in a zoo, (as the angels currently approach their divinely prescribed duty) but something that can and will protect right back, given the right tutelage. Something that can destroy the wheel itself to redeem it. (Truly, as Yisun himself asserted– “here is the most dangerous thing in all creation.”)
From a narrative standpoint, the defeat of White Chain is necessary. The greasy drippings of Salami Dave’s unfettered ego do much more for the story if he is not defeated at this early point. He needs to be demonstrated to be the thing that Allison must harden herself against ever becoming. To do that, he has to be personally detestable. Truly reviled, and his inflexible nature– His insistence that he can be an adamantium stone against the world is crushed, to remake it in his image– needs to be shown for how sickeningly inflexible it is.
As such, White Chain needs to be defeated here. (Defeated, but not destroyed.)
Nicely reasoned. I do wonder, however, if there’s enough comic left for all that you predict. Recent rumour is that book 5 will be the last. Alison still has to sort out things with Cio and Zaid, give Incubus a proper kicking, defuse Jagganoth and finally decide what she wants from her life. That’s a whole, busy book right there; not much space for an anguished quest after White Chain.
I suspect that 10 Vigilant Gaze will be the white flame flanking the Rising King for most of the final book, with White Chain making a deus-ex appearance in the final act.
I am struck down, but not destroyed, for He is my rock of salvation, and my shelter in the storm.
> From a narrative standpoint, the defeat of White Chain is necessary. The greasy drippings of Salami Dave’s unfettered ego do much more for the story if he is not defeated at this early point. He needs to be demonstrated to be the thing that Allison must harden herself against ever becoming. To do that, he has to be personally detestable. Truly reviled, and his inflexible nature– His insistence that he can be an adamantium stone against the world is crushed, to remake it in his image– needs to be shown for how sickeningly inflexible it is.
> As such, White Chain needs to be defeated here. (Defeated, but not destroyed.)
SOLID SUM-UP
also
> The greasy drippings of Salami Dave’s unfettered ego
Thank you for this. I hope you’re writing publicly somewhere, that was top tier.
Your interesting outlook brought something suddenly into focus for me: Solomon’s part of the story ends here and White Chain’s part goes on, whether he kills her or not.
Osterman in darker hue
For seeing far away. There’s two.
I thought you liked it, says the blue.
Ok, I really need this not to be the world we live in, at least let something good come of this- SALAMI DAVE MUST FALL
SalamiDrawers gonna be seen t’kill an angel, a bein o s’posed light an right, whilst said stoneyarse be powerless ‘gainst thum, an at thum’s mercy. Seen by every un, seen by zillions in all full zoom GogAgogVision glory, seen by all thum’s adulatin Rayuban populace…
Solly kills WC and it sparks a revolution destroying Rayuba? That would be business as usual for Allicio’s Wrecking Crew. Look how they left Mottom’s palace and Mammon’s tower.
To be fair, most of the damage dealt to Mammon’s tower was not *directly* their fault.
Also a revolution is definitely the way to bring down Solomon, what with both the title drop and Solomon’s statement that only great individuals can cause change. Though, like every theory I ever see in these comments turn out to be wrong, perhaps just to spite us.
Or is thum’s soliloquisin leadin up t’un epiphanical revelation f’ Salami.
White Chain, if you are saving up your big haymaker for the turnaround of the match this should be the time to use it.
He is eloping with Withe chain!!!
Nooooo!
My OTPs!
So the prophecy spake that Alison would be flanked by a white flame and a dark flame….
And I can’t help but notice that currently she *Is* flanked in such a manner.
… what if White Chain was never the companion of the prophecy. What if it was Vigiliant Gaze all along?
I S2A did you just pull a ‘the real journey was the friends we made along the way?’
Maybe the real treasure was this gun I found along the way.
Maybe the real treasure was the toppled thrones of the gods we murdered along the way.
Perhaps the real friendship was the violence all along.
Make Six Billion Friends
Kill your inner demonization of six billion fellow human beings.
Jadis’ storytelling imagery power or whatever does quite clearly show an angel that looks a lot like WC, but also: has WC flanked Allison long enough? The wording is sort of obscure since it’s a dramatic prophecy and not legal and rigorous explanation of what is to come. And it could still be VG’s turn to flank, even if Abbadon planned this from the start the prophecy’s symmetry would be all messed up introducing VG into the “flanked by flame” bit.
So, as usual, we know something, but not enough to make any reasonable assessment. We’ll see soon enough, I guess.
“I wonder sometimes… Why I do this all at all”.
Solomon’s having his Mammon moment. I wonder now where this is going to lead.
What I find interesting is the parallel to Zoss. He’s travelling the same path, and expressing longing for the same conclusion, without having reached the peak or understanding the prison he’s built.
Solomon is not making a lot of sense, as usual. Why look so hard for a man like me, and build an empire that can only work with a man like me at the front, if my hope is that “some day men like me need not exist”? It’s pure bullshit, and this doesn’t look like the moment when he becomes aware of it.
Like WC told him: he’s built his own perfect prison, and he’s not even aware of it.
So many people here are just dead set on salami Dave being some cliche tyrant from a children’s bedtime story. He is afraid, afraid that if he loosens his diamond-hard grip on the world, for even a moment, that it will all crumble. He built this empire with his own two hands(possibly literally) and when he was done, he realised he chained it to himself in the process.
If the big salami truly realised that he was chained to his creation, he would be potentially redeemable. But he does not. He sees the walls as accomplishment, the bars as merit, the prison as self-worth. Until his trappings are stripped from him, he is broken, but the very act of freeing him from that which debars him from Royalty will destroy him.
Big Sal, in his smugness, does not realise that he has failed at Royalty and that is why he is only God of the Seven Part World, and not Ruling King.
Also there may be some Magus Gates up for grabs soon, maybe a bit over 100,000
We have not yet achieved Peak Smugness, but it’s coming.
What one read in this particular episode was nascent self-doubt. Tho the smugness will out again one is sure.
Each time thus far Allison has met one of the Seven in the flesh, it has led – often unintentionally – to an act of apocalyptic mercy. Mottom and Mammon both have been shocked out of their cyclical, lethargic depressions and forced by these revelations to meet the world as it truly is. These experiences have not made them better people, nor has it made them less dangerous – quite the opposite. But they *have* forced them to change. But change is not a peaceful thing. The forest fire gives new life to the forest through terrifying destruction. Zoss’s command was to spread the terrible fire of change to others, to break the cycle, to destroy the status quo. And that is exactly what Allison has done. I see no reason this should be different for Solomon. The destiny of the Rising King is to *break* the wheel.
Breaking is an act of violence. And I should not have to remind those gathered here to watch these events what one does through violence.
Truly thus is it written in Scripture. “I shall tear these stars from out the heavens,” said Mahasamatman, “and hurl them in the faces of the gods, if this be necessary. I shall blaspheme in every Temple throughout the land. I shall take lives as a fisherman takes fish, by the net, if this be necessary. I shall mount me again up to the Celestial City, though every step be a flame or a naked sword and the way be guarded by tigers. One day will the gods look down from Heaven and see me upon the stair, bringing them the gift they fear most. That day will the new Yuga begin.”
I think a lot of people fail to understand something about the Demiurge, and that ultimately they are pityfull being, yeah they are all powerfull, but none of them is happy, they are all broken in a way or another.
The common point of all of them is pain, sorrow and fear, they are product of the Universal Wars, of the madness that engulfed creation.
Mottom is a old woman terrified of death and living of the shadow of her long dead husband (who was a monster) to scarred to abandon her role
Mommon is senile, depressive and remorsefull for killing his only familly, to the point he only act out of habit and lost almost all will to live
Jadis was mindbroken by the truth of the universe
Gog-Agog is quite litteraly a giant pile of insane worms LARPing as human and devouring other identity because it lack one itself (outside of hunger)
Solomon is so traumatized by the death of his familly and of his world he became a overprotective micro-managing tyrant who see everyone as either a child unable to decide for themselve or a ennemy.
Jagganoth has been driven insane by the whisper of the first angel telling him to destroy all of creation.
Incubus is a ex-street orphan who see everything as a strugle for survival (and let’s be honest Meti using him as counter-example for Maya is probably no stranger to him being fucked up).
Some day all of this will be gone like tears in the rain. I’m not crying, you are
A diamond, with a seed of doubt at its core, and even in ‘defeat,’ White Chain has helped to grow that seed.
Diamonds are not meant to resist internal pressure.
Dave reminds me a bit of a man from a far-away time. A man who turned the world he grew up on through sheer, bloody violence against the murderers, thieves, and rapists, to the point where the crime rate went from nearly 100% to nearly 0% in a year. Because of this man, things turned around, and society saw upheaval and improvement for all of the impoverished and beleaguered people he championed.
But while his methods certainly worked, his rule was still one of fear and bloodshed. Because they worked, he kept relying on them and did nothing to actually prepare his world for the day when he would no longer be there to govern them. And once he left, and the fear of his presence went with him, everything went right back to the way it was before he began his crusade to save them. In the end, he believed that the people could never change, ignoring his own blame in the matter, and had his world destroyed.
I think that Stonebeard Dave has made a similar mistake; he believes that he can never step aside, because once he does, all of his great works will be undone. Without him there, holding things together, they will fall apart back into how it was before, and thus he remains in power until someone can surpass him – as a fighter, not necessarily as a Ruler, because his utopia is held together by strength. We do not know if he has even taken the necessary measures to ensure that they could function without him there, because his desire to see his legacy endure – his Pride – has blinded him to the very notion.
My point is, he’s being a real Konrad Curze right now. Except he realizes a part of it, and that makes it worse.
I remember Pree Konrad well, and I consider myself worse off for the clarity of that memory. But his story is instructive, as are those of all his family. One wonders whether it is coincidence that both Solomon David and Konrad’s father, who shared his title, were both *incredibly* shitty dads.
Fox! It’s been a turn of the Wheel and more since the last time we met! It does my soul flame very well indeed to see you again, especially in such good health.
Ironically, his Empire is a Bureaucracy, and those often can function quite well without the man at the top.
Solomon’s speech in the last panel is very interesting. It’s the most righteous idea we’ve yet heard from any of the Seven. If he’d said it back in the ring, I’d have called it standard-issue bullshit for the cameras. But they’re off-mic now.
Solomon’s whole theme is that you can be righteous and still be a total jerk, by virtue of your own righteousness.
Maybe, but he’s not as prideful as might be in his last speech. I can’t imagine Mottom, or Incubus, or Gog Agog looking forward to the point where they’re no longer in power.
Mottom literally begged Allison to take her throne and her kingdom.
Ding ding ding!
Elimination by ring out!
Only White Chain(‘s Soul) remains in the arena!
That’d be nice, but those rules only applied to the contestants. Now WC is up against the Emperor, and there’s only one rule: shed the Emperor’s blood, or else.
White Chain’s soul is back in her body, as someone pointed out earlier. I missed it too.
They haven’t set foot outside the ring, though, they’re mid-air. But maybe if Solomon gets too busy monologing, he’ll start absent-mindedly wandering around town, inadvertently landing while holding his opponent aloft.
Think White Chain’s still got a some form of “Why don’t you just put the whole WORLD in a BOTTLE, Solomon?” in her. Strength beyond strength.
Unlike Kal-El, I doubt Salami Dave would be able to see the truth in that kind of statement.
You’ve been Ki-Rated, lass! (gang sign)
You know what? I actually LIKE Solomon David.
Not that he is a good dude, but like… he is trying.
I would really love to see White chain saying “You could be more. You could build an empire that didn’t need you any more. We could *help* you. You don’t have to do this alone.”
I can’t help but think she’s proved herself that he might actually consider listening if she said that.
….
Or at least consider sparing her life in a “Meh, sure, why not” manner.
He knows the red God is coming, and even if the other 5 demigures are useless, having the key of kings onside wouldn’t exactly be a *bad* thing.
He’s better than the other “gods”, at least. Not that that’s saying much, of course.
He thinks he already has the master key. He thinks Zaid is the Rising King, that Allison will meekly hand the key to Zaid, and that he, Solomon, will sock-puppet Zaid until all is resolved. All wrong.
Actually, White Chain’s pyrrhic victory could be to convince Solomon how wrong are all these ideas. If she’s still up to a long conversation.
Where did you get all that from? There is a scene in which he literally tells Zaid something along the lines of “You are a person of interest for now, but there is a good shot you may turn out to be nothing, in the meantime I’ll keep you around just to cover my bases”
He didn’t assume, at least on camera, any of what you are saying.
That’s the scene where he and Zaid walk along the main causeway, and interestingly Solomon actually calls himself a tyrant.
He has admittedly just kept the bearer of the master key in a dungeon acquiescing to his will, and already has Zaid in thrall.
What he will do with both is less clear as you say, and Zaid is currently the inheritor of nothing.
One thinks he may feel this is Zoss’ plan still in motion and wishes to see how it plays out, perhaps because Zoss is (the only one) further along the path to Royalty than he. Of the seven, he naturally wants himself to be the one ‘in control’ of the main players and key when it does, to have the best advantage of whatever Zoss is/was up to; also denying the other six.
King of Swords 5-49: the concordance of demiurges. Solomon says “There is also the question of this girl Allison. A pawn of Zoss, perhaps. A flawed vessel to carry his power to the true heir.” Then Mottom refers to Zaid as the heir and questions Solomon’s ability to guard him. Solomon does not suggest that Zaid is not the heir.
That Solomon expects to control Zaid after Zaid gets the master key is my extrapolation.
Anyway, as brother Cuppa points out, he has both Zaid and Allison in his power at present.
Yes, he currently has both of them under his control, but I feel he is a cautious man, more than it may seem. It might be hard to tell because of the huge smugness, but I don’t think he assumes THAT much about his prisoners.
All will be seen after White Chain is turned to dust. I would even bet on Solomon letting them go, for some reason.
Dave, giving off strong cop vibes: Stop resisting, this is for your own good! *continues beating*
It’s a martial arts match, what did you expect?
Honorable conduct and a sense of fair sportsmanship?
“Fair sportsmanship” would prevent this match from happening at all because the power gap is so big. It was incredibly unfair right from the start. As for honorable conduct… Well, Dave has literally been completely straightforward in this match. He hasn’t done anything dishonorable (if you don’t count holding back as dishonorable) and simply took all attacks head on and then struck his opponent in a completely straightforward manner. If anything, White Chain’s “use multiple bodies to surprise him” tricks make her the dishonorable one here.
The old “the fight is unfair because the person I like is losing” argument.
Another unorthodox move from White Chain as she pummels Solomon’s fists and feet with her shell. Let’s see if this tactic pays off.
An advanced, but dangerous, technique for attacking Solomon’s elbow there.
Spontaneous speculation. Solomon throws (or just casually drops) White Chain exactly onto the tribune with Allison & Co, where she explodes. And there, in raging mixture of white and black flame, the Rising King is born to bring new and terrible eon upon the Multiverse.
Doubt it really is going to turn out that way, but if so, it will be quite epically badass.
That’s… unlikely, but man, wouldn’t that be great!
Hopes the Salami be right proud o thum’s ramshacklin, shanty-town o un sposed capital city right outside yon grandisome palace.
Quick question to anyone, do we know the name of his capital, is it also Rayuba?
Previous shots of it show it classical in design, of the ilk of Venice or Ottoman say, and well kept, but the rain does do it a disservice.
Is that another sea at the far end of the city, or is it just fading into the distance? If sea it is, then it is a nice example of a tarbert, somewhere there’s a thin isthmus where boats were dragged across it in preference to sailing/rowing all the way round.
Dave’s fury makes it look like he was expecting a gas attack, with his beardy black-rage gasmask.
I never hoped for a competitive showing from White Chain. I was hoping for a compelling one. I think we got it.
Told you guys two pages ago, she’s definitely gonna die. Only question is whether she takes Dave with her in a blaze of glory first.
The first blow settled the match. The many after settled his mind.
Are those boats just stuck in the harbor until the arena is smashed?
Solomon’s causeway design not befitting a being of his power.
Incidentally, the boats have also previously been seen sailing directly into the wind, not even on a tack.
White Chain’s narrative arc isn’t finished until she turns selfish, seizes Solomon’s key, and discovers the joy of power for its own sake. (A mirror to Clio’s rejection of deviltry and learning to understand selfless acts.) 5 gets you 10 that Alison will have to face down White Chain as the final boss.
Armor piecing question time.
“Why haven’t you done anything to make the world not need men like you?”
Is this technically a ringout?
Men like you never needed to exist, Solocup Davidson.
I disagree. He essentially rebuilt and protected Rayuba from an universal war which included individuals as strong and perhaps more dangerous than he. Had he not existed, Rayuba and the empire probably would not exist at all.
Considering that before he got his Key, Rayuba had been stripped of literally everything, even its SUN, I think you’re right.
She *does* have him on the ropes.
Y’all so worried about that drop of blood you don’t even get she’s not even trying to work that health bar.
This whole contest was designed BY Solomon to make sure no one ever won. It’s a Kobayashi Maru. So the only way to win is to change the game.
Waiting for one of those Angel’s Nails to go through his flesh
Get ‘im monolouging, White Chain!
uh oh!
… and White Chain responds with a scathing comment, so piquantly bitter, so Oscar Wilde clever, that Solomon plucks the Key from his forehead and jams it into hers.
Then I woke up.
Oh, I think she scratched him, all right. Note the subject of his soliloquy.
The positions of Solomon and White Chain remind me of those of Solomon and the Ki Rata master he sucker-punched. Feels like it might be forshadowing, but not sure in which way.
There it is. His particular hypocrisy. “People like me should not exist, but I will maintain power through overwhelming force”. Like Mottom, Mammon and possibly Incubus, he likes having the power and it terrifies him.
Not Incubus. Every piece of evidence we’ve had is that he enjoys/seeks power for its own sake and wants more. He is deathly afraid of losing the power he has, and hates that others do not consider him having earned what he has.
Men like him never needed to exist. But those men will do everything they can to convince others that they do, and convince themselves that they wish it were not so.
Excerpt from ‘Oedipus Rex’
Chorus :
“Ο that ’twere mine to keep
An awful purity,
In words and deeds whose laws on high are set
Through heaven’s clear æther spread,
Whose birth Olympos boasts,
Their one, their only sire,
Whom man’s frail flesh begat not,
Nor in forgetfulness
Shall lull to sleep of death;
In them our God is great,
In them He grows not old for evermore.
But pride begets the mood
Of wanton, tyrant power;
Pride filled with many thoughts, yet filled in vain,
Untimely, ill-advised,
Scaling the topmost height,
Falls to the abyss of woe,
Where step that profiteth
It seeks in vain to take.
I ask our God to stay
The labours never more
That work our country’s good;
I will not cease to call on God for aid.”
Oedipus The King, by Sophocles,
Translation by Edward H. Plumptre, 1865
Do you have a site or something. I always looks for your post on the comments for more quotes like these.
Hello MAth,
I have not created a site, my intention has been simply to cheer Abbadon on in my own way, while just possibly providing some inspiration to his writing, while amusing my fellow votaries and myself.
It is mostly for my own fun, and I took it on as a personal challenge to find some kind of artistic, literary, mythic, historical, or other comment that might relate ( however obliquely ! ) to this unfolding Epic of Abbadon’s.
Sometimes my comments are silly and sometimes I find myself struck by serious aspects of this Saga and try to match the moment.
Finding and sharing excerpts from the ancient myths, or a poem or play to quote from the past is fun for me.
And sometimes I find I’m so Inspired an original poem of my own is generated.
Cheers,
Oneirimancer
The reason no one can replace you is because people like you exist.
Yes, which is why he exists. He became one of Those Men and forged a corner of the multiverse while not some spontaneous beacon of freedom is a sight better than what he have seen in other domains. If Solomon disappeared tommorow, that bubble would pop and other Those Men would take it. Nothing would change.
Machiavelli points this out to rulers who want to be good to their people and be righteous in thought and deeds. If you refuse to ever do anything dishonorable, you are likely to lose power to those willing to. And then where will your people be? Under the yoke of someone without your qualms. So do what you must to protect yourself position if you honestly have good intentions.
He has yet to find someone he felt could defend the people, and for whatever reason hasn’t cooked up a scheme to empower the people enough to protect themselves or trained a guardian for them himself (after all, he required the monks to train him, he is not self-made)
But as long as there are other people like him out there, how can he in good conscience step down? And so the Tower is a prison and it doesn’t even require Solomon to be a moustache twirling villain.
He has his people literally hauling huge stones by hand to make an arena where he can showboat how strong he is.
This guy is not a good guy or even a good leader.
And yes, if he dissapeared tomorrow there would be chaos, anarchy, fire in the streets, but only for the sole reason that he never trusted anyone with any real power or responsibility and placed it all on himself, because he only saw himself as good enough.
There are likely thousands or millions of people who could do an adequate or even better job of ruling his worlds, but he simply refuses for anyone to be less than perfect (i.e. chosing to do what he would do).
The only benefit David gives his people is stability at the cost of being able to govern themselves, to be inventive, to learn how to defend themselves. He is the overbearing controlling helicopter parent who tssks when his child turns into a homeless drug addict when they finally rebel because they have never been allowed to learn how to do things for themselves. And they say “see, under my rule things weren’t so bad. I only controlled your ever action because it was necessary while patting themselves on the back for how tragically misunderstood they were.
A good ruler knows that the tighter you put your hold on your own people, the more they rebel against you and the weaker they are when you finally get toppled or die. A good ruler builds something that outlasts themselves.
Spreading the enormity of his power, enough to be able to fight back against the other Seven without his own intervention has a name. It’s called the universal war, and it was already attempted by Zoss long ago.
We know how well it worked.
Modern terran morals and ethics are fine and well in a universe where Galactus doesn’t have a vested interest in ruining your day.
When Injustice Superman is the only thing protecting you from Galactus, I doubt the moral high ground of spitting in his face.
I would still spit in the tyrant’s face. And he would kill me for it.
And if the people under his rule have no impact on the defense of their kingdom and Solomon is the sole reason they haven’t fallen to the other seven, why doesn’t Solomon just step down and become a mere protector of the kingdom instead of the ruler?
He can just say “Hey, other dudes and dudettes, I’m stepping down from ruling this kingdom, but if you touch it I’m still kicking in your shit. If my kingdom attacks you however, feel free to push them back to the original borders and no further”.
But, if you say that he needs to organise the defense of his kingdom and therefor needs to rule, than it admits that the people in it do have an impact on the defense and they can stand a chance of warding of invasions themselves. I’m sure there are much more competent generals and logistic officers in the kingdom that outstrip Solomon’s capabilities.
Tyrants always argue that without them things will be much worse, but we’ve seen, even in a world where there a nukes which can destroy our entire planet, that a people that is liberated and is free to think for themselves and to self govern will be pound for pound a better society than one under “a strong leader” that “controls the power balance”.
This situation with the seven and his kingdoms inability to rule itself are both clear flaws in Solomon his skill as a diplomat and a ruler. He is nothing but a one man military dictatorship that only understand violence. Heck, this entire tournament to chose a new leader is only based on someone’s ability to do violence. Maybe diplomacy, charm, logistical skill and admnistrative abilities are much more important traits in a leader, but we can’t have Solomon amitting that someone else could do his job in a completely different way and do it much better.
Solomon has allowed a cold war to go on for thousands of years and his impotency to change it is masked as “stability and protection”.
I think this is largely because Solomon is genre savvy. In his experience in the end it doesn’t come down to logistics, or administration, or even diplomacy, it comes down to wuxia nonsense because that is the world they live in. Trying to tie it logically to our own world has certain limits due to that. Everything else you listed is possible as long as you have a certain level of martial prowess available, then you can have governments and markets and all the other shiny bits of civilization because otherwise a kung Fu work god comes along and wrecks everything, for example. He also likely thought that it was a better deterrent for him to be the face of the Empire than simply a public servant in the wings as the other empires are organized like the former and it is what they know and respect.
Obviously the narrative is saying he is Wrong for doing what he has done all these years, and we will wait for the author to spell out how with dialogue and consequences, what third path had been available to him that we don’t know right now would have worked had he been brave enough and not too risk adverse.
As for his impotency, certainly. All the genre talk of ‘true strength’s is to highlight that here is a man who can at least imagine a different world, one he professes to prefer, and lacks the strength to make it so in the face of others like him.
Kung fu gods certainly would be less of a problem if technology wasn’t explicitly nerfed in this universe. It does indeed put a bit of a damper on my argument, but it also shows that the universe literally has to be completely different than it actually is compared to ours for Solomon to have even the beginning of a point.
I guess I can live with that.
“See, there! Not even an ANGEL can defeat Solomon David! What hope do any else have? His tournament is a SHAM and always has been!”
If I were a betting person, I’d put money on 10 Vigilant Gaze saying much the same thing within 3 comics.
Let me ask you something fellas, if you were Salami Dave, what would you have done?
Invest in results based rehabilitation programs, instead of rat infested medieval dungeons.
1000 pages of laws, and no thought for what to do with the people who break them.
The lights in the town end up looking as if the town is on fire, I almost hope it is. That his people are already revolting against his order upon witnessing the spectacle.
What a time for me to run out of pages to read.
Welcome to the commentariat, or as it is also occasionally know, the wait.
What does a man like Solomon fear?
We all have fears. Some more than others. Fear, cowardice… survival instincts. We fight or we fly. Does he fear the day when he is no longer needed? Does he fear himself? Or does he truly fear nothing, and perhaps that is what drives him to find someone strong enough to beat him, so he can feel that again?
He’s probably just a righteous asshole and it doesn’t matter if he fears anything at all, probably shouldn’t try to get all philosophical when I’m cowering in abject terror.
well… if solomon was less self absorbed he would realize that people like him are *never* necessary. he also seems to have misunderstood what he actually is or otherwise has a warped view of himself.
in other news, he’s still fucking around which, despite current appearances, does give White Chain the possibility of an opening… that said he’s almost certainly going to stop fucking around soon and most likely White Chain is going to die horribly. i think if an opening does appear, it will be in solomon’s transition from fucking around to serious business… but hahah, who am i kidding, DAMNIT WHITE CHAIN YOU BETTER COME BACK SOON!
Solomon’s concentration has wavered. His fall is nigh.
Solomon is literally insane, then. By setting the requirement for inheriting his empire as supreme violence, he ensures supreme violence is always necessary, and yet here he is saying that he’s doing something that makes it eternal because he hopes that it will go way.
Fuck the waht, Salami.
Hate to be the one to tell you, bub, but you were BORN superfluous.
Is it just me, or is Solomon a good guy who runs a clean shop, just wants to keep the peace and desperately wants to retire soon?
Seems to me, his main problem is this: he can’t conceive of any way to handle things that doesn’t involve violence and a powerful figurehead.
He’s convinced that he did what he had to do to bring peace for his realm – and who knows, maybe that’s true. But because of that, he’s also convinced that there could never be another way to run things.
I feel like he’s the most well-meaning of the demiurges. But he refuses to even acknowledge that there could be flaws in his methods, reasoning, or ideals.
Perhaps that’s why so many people here have such a strong hatred for him, despite the fact that, by all evidence, he’s the least-terrible demiurge we’ve come across. Unlike Mammon and Mottom, Solomon is completely incapable of self-reflection or self-doubt.
While I think I’d much rather live in one of Solomon’s worlds than Mottom or Mammon’s, his unwavering conviction in his self-righteousness is what rubs so many people the wrong way.
The thing is, if White Chain won, if ANYONE won, they would essentially take his place as one of the demiurges. So strength is 100% necessary or else the others would devour what was once Solomon’s domain.
Sure, but also has spent so long in the role that he knows not how to do anything else. He has also had to hang around with monsters that whole time and has made certain compromises I imagine.
I’m wondering how hard it would be for an Angel to compress their entire soul into a tiny part of their body that Solomon is unlikely to punch.
I mean, we are talking about the angel who was able to control her armor with just the tiniest strand of soul still inside.
Aren’t they technically outside the ring now?
Yeah, but the adjudicators are probably like:
“You tell him!”
“Are you crazy? You tell him!”
Breaking the glass ceiling there..
I suppose it’s rather humorous that the good king Solomon has created a sphere of influence wherein nobody can challenge his power despite him having experienced first hand the creeping filth that such Force brings. A hundred thousand ants beneath his thumb yet he has become far too bloated with his own pride to give up control, becoming but another cog (albeit an especially shiny and well muscled one) in a machine of his own design.
(In other news he’s still kind’ve hot and that skirt must be very well secured indeed)
I suppose it’s rather humorous that the good king Solomon has created a sphere of influence wherein nobody can challenge his power despite him having experienced first hand the creeping filth that such Force brings. A hundred thousand ants beneath his thumb yet he has become far too bloated with his own pride to give up control, becoming but another cog (albeit an especially shiny and well muscled one) in a machine of his own design.
“In a perfect world, men like me would not exist. But this is not a perfect world.”
Looking back at this page I LOVE the symbolism of this image. The arena, shaped like the key upon his brow, represents everything Solomon stands for: pride, strength, brutal power, the result of thousands of man hours and the blood, sweat, and tears it took to build this grand edifice to his might. And yet, in this moment, he (literally) breaks it, stepping outside of it to speak to White Chain. But he’s not just speaking to her as an equal here. To speak to her, he had to rise above his power and above everything he stands for just to be able to reach the point where he could speak openly to her and to confess his true feelings to himself. This book is next level.
We shall see pure fractal fire, white chain unchained.