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
BREAKER OF INFINITIES
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.