KING OF SWORDS 10-157
Chapter: 10
“The most magnificent of weapons is one that is offered out of self love. Grasp the nonshape. Make the mirror strike.
Would you take another’s weapon as your own? First answer: would you take another’s heart as your own?
The sword that cleaves the horizon must be swung from the center of your chest.”
-Prim’s Way of Gentleness, scroll 44
Damn, White Chain. Get his ass.
Make another’s ass your ass
Grasp the buttshape
Shape the buttgrasp.
Butt the buttbutt
I can’t cleave; it’s not butter
Grab life by the sphincter
Get after ‘em White chain!
“It’s not over until I say it’s over!”
You know, it is an impeccable attempt. She doesn’t need to defeat Solomon in combat; she only needs to fight until he is no longer willing. I can imagine that, given that she’s the best friend and mentor of the bearer of the Original Key, with whom he wishes to parley, Solomon’s willingness to continue is less than one might guess. Furthermore, she is undoubtedly the most unique angle and most noble opponent he has ever faced. In a way, she is now little different than his beloved daughters who were slain simply for existing in proximity to violence. How could he betray that?
Furthermore, his daughters died because great and powerful men refused to act. Now, White Chain will die because the great and powerful man will refuse to act against his own hubris. He’s not stupid—aside from incubus, you don’t seem to be prince of the world via stupidity—so he undoubtedly knows this to be the case.
In other words, White Chain may be about to pull off the greatest filibuster in the history of the Multiverse.
I mean, can’t he just throw her out of the ring, and get a victory by elimination?
A ring out would be a cowards’s victory. He is a bit too proud for that.
That would look cheap and totally unfitting of a wise, noble, all-powerful Emperor, would it?
jeez WC, youre spillin a lot of soul juice
But first, one question: is the stuff drinkable?
One can say it has somewhat of a kick to it, quite fiery.
Just young White Chain needlessly proving that she is indeed a Liquid Angel.
Life is no fun if you keep all your soul juice on the inside ALL the time.
I imagine angel soul-fire tastes like methylated hot sauce.
Angel soul-fire tastes like death.
It is inadvisable, as that which is formed from the very fundament of an ordered cosmos is antithetical to the short, bright flame of mortality.
Also, it is terrible for your teeth.
Tooth decay? Try Aeon Lite. For that bright white smile. Now with added (chlorine tri-) fluoride.
Ah yes, ClF_3, probably the nastiest substance in all creation. Capable of setting fire to sand, glass, asbestos, water and halon. Likely to convert cavities in your teeth to teeth in a smoking cavity.
Yes, the cold, white flame might be like that. Don’t get it on you.
You can drink it.
Once.
As the immortal Daffy Duck once put it, “I know, I know, but I can only do it once.”
The supposed bodge job done on my sister White Chain’s chest doesn’t appear to be leaking though. Better repair work than we all thought.
I must say Solomon’s craftsmen did a far better job than I was expecting from the looks of things. Those ringnails are quite the thing.
Now would be a good time to remember a classic proverb:
It isn’t over, until the stone lady explodes
The angels are beings that know the limits of their bodies and inner fire. I think it exceptional that White Chain is pushing past the limits of her body.
Limits are held by those who allow them to exist. Such is the way of progress. Many fall on the path to excellence, but never in vain, because rather than merely watch, they took their steps.
I suspect that this is not her first time pushing herself past her limits, she has died and reincarnated more times in the defense of Throne than any other among the Angel host. It’s probably also telling that she is admired by some (well, at least one that has said it) for her tenacity.
Salami Dave had the feelings on the first panel
Every Diamond has impurities. The angel has found one.
Alloys are stronger than diamond.
But forged ash and smokeless flame might not be.
Words heavier than all the stone and iron in all Solomon David’s domain. A tombstone under which he has buried all of his hopes, and a graven idol unto which to exalt his fears.
“Until a better age.”
By these words do men submit utterly to despair, and name that surrender wisdom.
A man somehow more foolish than I once said to me that to wait for a revolution is to stifle it.
I say he is more the fool because, of the two, I live and he does not. Although, maybe I am the greatest fool for assuming survival at the cost of my own convictions is a victory.
…rain, just rain…
Like tears in rain
Feeling: sorry for himself because he has to be king of the world for another year? ‘Oh, when will one arise worthy of taking over, so that I may retire to nitpick, backseat-drive and micromanage for the rest of my miserable days? But of course, none are worthy of such a fate, so alas, I must continue as CEO of this self-created shitshow. Why can’t I knock off the heads of 200 people just for the fun of it? No, it’s just this years’ head-knocking quota every time. I’ve lost all my spontaneity! Nothing can surprise me! I never get to really show off! No audience is worthy. Mummmyyyy make it STAHP!
The path to Royalty; of striving to cut yourself into a blade of want, and to cut ever finer shapes of yourself with it
i didn’t hear no bell
i cant believe white chain got yamcha’d
Quite untrue. Unlike Yamcha, White Chain doesn’t let something like dying, facing undefeated tyrants, or (very likely now) dying in a crater stop her from getting back up again
To be fair, neither did Yamcha. He’s had his fair sure of resurrections.
I don’t know what this Yamcha is, but it sounds disappointing.
It’s a unit of measure, according to Abaddon.
She’s about to bloom
I didn’t hear no bell.
Something about the way this angel fights takes me cold.
…It’s not much, of course, but there’s a tiny part of my mind that wonders if I’ve made the wrong investment. I cannot truly be certain of that, but…
Aha! Ponied up some cash on the wrong horse, didja there, huh chief?
you just got yamcha’d
Strength beyond Strength. White Chain gets it. i wonder if Allison will…
There’s a certain point where resolve becomes recklessness, determination becomes stubbornness. White Chain gave her all and then some, and in turn got Solomon to smile. At that point there’s no shame in accepting defeat – in fact, accepting it now would be wiser. A defeat you survive is the greatest teacher in all the cosmos.
In fairness to White Chain, she will survive even if the shell is destroyed. Unless Solomon decides to follow her, I guess.
Zapping out of the material plane would probably count as a ring out (even though the void reflects the shadow cast by the material plane). If he noticed WC doing it earlier, it didn’t count as disqualifying as it was against Juggernaut Star, who was never a contestant in the first place.
There wouldn’t be a point to it anyways, and he seems eager to end the fight, he’s not going after total annailhation if he doesn’t have to.
Wisdom, Restraint, Emptiness… Ha! Who need them?!
Flip the cart!
it would also mean giving in to the whims of a tyrant and White Chain, as she is now, absolutely will not and frankly can not do that… there’s also that whole angel reincarnation thing which hasn’t really been fully explained yet so unlike most challengers she can come back from “death” though i don’t know if she will be the same person or simply similar ala doctor who and all those shenanigans.
Prim says: the Sword of Dios was a terrible idea
I mean, she doesn’t actually SAY whether it’s a bad idea to use someone else’s heart as your own heart. Really, I think the important thing is to commit to it. Just really knuckle down and subsume yourself to the multitudinous throbbing voices within the stolen well of your new strength. That’s always been my approach anyway.
Or -HAS- it?!?!?? Hmm, maybe Prim is on to something.
Seems like he is purposefully avoiding saying White Chain and Allisons’ names. It’s plausible that he might not know White Chains name or is unsure, but given how each of the demiurges likely have their spies keeping an eye/ear/sensory organ out for Allison for some time now, he is very likely to know Allisons’ name from any number of sources.
Maybe he just forgot, despite having learned it. After all, Zoss can’t even be bothered to remember her name’s Allison and not Alice.
It may be a taboo against saying YISUN – the same of God.
A bloody egg yolk,
A burnt hole spreading in a sheet,
An enraged rose threatening to bloom.
Uh-oh. He said it, he shouldn’t have said it, but it’s on him now. ‘I very much doubt that you have anything left that will surprise me.’
Straight out of villian mistakes 101…
Along with making sure that the protagonist is absolutely and quantifyably dead and that they cannot return from the dead as it were and that you’ve seen the body atomized. Though this wasn’t Solomon’s aim here anyway.
I still don’t really understand what she’s doing?
Never compromise. Not even in the face of Armageddon.
DO IT
*waves hand in your general direction*
*splatters artfully*
Admittedly, this is one of the well-known risks of not compromising.
She’s not trying to win, she’s fighting because it’s right to fight. Regardless of the odds, she’s recognized the system Solomon represents, and she’s finally decided she will compromise no further.
As she said a few pages back, she’s fighting with all her strength.
ALL her strength.
She’s not giving it her best shot and accepting when it’s clear it’s failed. She’s saying as long as she still lives, she will oppose this system of brutal, cynical, pragmatic oppression.
At this point, it’s not about victory in this match, it’s about fighting for what she believes, not because she can win, but because it’s worth fighting for.
Quite an inspired answer, and one that I agree with.
That said, I’m not sure about the wisdom of “fighting for what we believe, not because we can win, but because it’s worth fighting for” especially when the “losing” part includes death.
Then experience the terrible alternative of submission
Oh, your lot’s incessant bemoaning of Solomon’s oppression is so senseless. Any order is “oppression”. Any Law is “”oppression””. Any need to live along with others, having to compromise with them instead of doing whatever it is you want, is “””oppression”””. Solomon there has built a father-knows-best state, yes, but compared to the alternatives that the rest of The Seven offer, his worlds are an ordered peaceful wealthy utopia.
Compromising in order to get along with others is a choice. Living under a set of rules you did not agree to, and have no choice in, is oppressive, no matter how benevolent those rules are.
How much choice did you have on the rules that govern your society?
All the more reason for his rule to be criticized. Being better than your peers does not free you from criticism, instead it raises the standards you are held to.
Telling people not to complain about an injust system is childish. The work does not stop just because life is nice.
There is no “criticizing”, there’s either leaving the man to rule it his own manner, ensuring peace and prosperity the only way he knows how, or destroying him and everything he’s built, for the rest of The Seven to come claim the worlds newly undefended (and likely reigniting the Universal War). I question which path is the saner.
What good is Safety and Security without Freedom and Liberty?
Would you truly content to simply exist with no will of your own?
Sheesh, it’s a gradient Indigo, not a black and white choice.
Safety always requires trading some freedom, that’s what the social contract is.
As for will of our own, we have no idea how Solomon’s empire operates. If it was something like, say, the society of the Qunari, from Dragon Age where your entire life is determined by others so that you may better serve others then maybe your arguments would be warranted, but we have no evidence that that is so.
And even then, the argument of The Iron Bull stands “How much freedom do you really think a baker has?
I believe the problem is not so much the freedom of the individual, but rather the freedom of the society, or rather, its ability to change. This is what Solomon David does not allow, and what White Chain is fighting for.
White Chain cannot be a symbol of change if she compromises with the tyrant. She must either defeat him, or become a martyr trying. The latter is much more likely, which is why the tyrant multiple times offers compromise, but only after demonstrating martial superiority. This makes it certain that compromise cannot be mistaken for weakness on his part, and hides his desperation.
The terrible alternative of submission for White chain is that nothing will change, and she will even be helping the tyrant assert his position of power. People have preferred death over far less terrible fates.
White Chain does not have to live to break the Diamond. She only has to show it can be cracked without drawing blood; a method Solomon David cannot stop.
Stone coated in angel blood,
Downpour falls like rising flood.
King stands tall o’er beaten foe,
Foe demands another go.
It’s very simple. White Chain is not fighting Solomon David, she hasn’t been this whole time. White Chain is fighting White Chain – 2 Michael’s student, that terrible, ardent angel with all the force of the Old Law behind her, whose blows land with the same hideous weight of knowledge that bears down on sinners crushed beneath the wheel of Juggernaut Star.
She is an awesome foe in truth, and only Royalty could hope to defeat her. So do not despair! This is no defeat, these are only birth pains! Watch and see what blooms…
“I can do this all day.”
Ya know, if he hadn’t brutally killed a hundred or so contestants to make a point, Solomon would be coming off as a halfway decent person here.
But it was self defense! They attacked him!
(ha ha)
All those disqualified were offered their lives, riches, and titles to graciously accept their defeat by the rules of the royale
And they were killed strictly for the sake of showing his people what happens if you oppose him, even in ways he gives you permission to.
He could have subdued them all just as easily without hurting anyone.
Salami: “You realize at this point that I can kill you with my pinky. I’ve seen all your tricks. A few were cute. I’m bored now. Let’s go have tea with your hot young understudy.”
Woot Chain: “Do it, bitch.”
Salami: “No, that trick won’t work, either. I’ve seen angels explode. I have a spare set of robes just for such situations.”
Woot Chain: “Strike me down now. I’m not going to explode. The universe is.”
Woot Chain: “No balls!”
I think that Solomon David is crying in Panel 1, and his leap outside of the arena into the rain may have been to mask this moment. Knowing that the wheel must turn again until a better age must be crushing him. He still hopes to lose.
Mask it from whom though? Unless there’s some species/servants with telescopic vision in the crowd, the stadium audience can’t see him. No idea about TV since they have that but the only cameras we’ve seen are the camera headed servants we’ve seen a few times.
Maybe he is avoiding being seen by the Gog-Agogs?
Displaying weakness is probably a terrible idea if its in a way the other demiurges can find out.
The one best positioned for psychological warfare is probably Incubus, but he preys on a different set of weaknesses. I don’t see Gog Agog pulling off the act long enough for it to work.
Gog Agog is like a secret police force though.
To my knowledge most people have no way of identifying someone who is Gog’d unless she wants them to know.
Although all her shown forms are female.
It was noted that not even Solomon was able to keep the Beast at Bay. Hence why she is presiding over the tournament as an MC.
incubus may have the “mind games” but Gog has the important mouths and important ears in key locations.
Not being able to keep the Beast completely out doesn’t neccesarily mean ‘unable to keep under control’. It’s probably harder when she is focused (more of a hivemind focus than individual focus maybe) on a particular world as opposed to just osmosis.
While it’s true that Gog Agog has the important eyes, ears, and mouths in key locations, she is quite insane and it’s hard to tell whether she can pull off the same kind of plans within plans the others generally have without quickly going off the rails.
There’s a tumblr quote from Abbadon a while back saying that the only reason Gog Agog doesn’t rule the entire universe already is that she is quite insane.
LETS GO WHITECHAIN
I’m going cry I can feel it.