King of Swords 10-172
Yem Yeddo was astonished, and a great terror overwhelmed him. He was a quick and cowardly man, and fled. The people rejoiced and the granaries were broken open. The bodies of the tyrannical lord’s men were burned without rites and stomped upon. Flour was dragged forth by the sackful, the well Intra dug was quickly filled with fresh water and reinforced with stone, and soon many loaves of bread were emerging, steaming, from his oven. A goat was slaughtered and a great feast was had.
“Thankyou for the hospitality,” said Intra, when the night had grown long. “I will not impose upon you any longer.”
The populace were desperate for him to stay. “Lord Intra,” said they, “Yem Yeddo may yet return, with more men!”
“That is true,” said Intra, “And that I cannot help with you. But remember, men like him have forgotten their mothers. Their feet do not touch the earth, and they grasp at feeble things. They are like a mangy dog fighting over a fetid corpse. They have forgotten that with their brothers, working together, they could bring down a magnificent ox.”
He reached down and picked a goodly sized rock from the floor of the valley.
“This valley is broad and beautiful. It may have one Yem Yeddo, but it contains many more stones.”
– The Song of Maybe
Nyave’s atum is green, just like Gog’s. It was green the first time we saw it in King of Swords 7-67, but that was after Gog had been skulking around their apartment. Hmmmm…
The alt-text made me laugh loud and long.
Honestly, that’s a pretty terrible idea when the only thing protecting Solomon’s people from other, way worse dictators is Solomon himself. If Solomon withdraws, his former lands will be taken by the others in what would likely be brutal warfare. If Solomon steps down from ruling but stays around as a deterrent to the other six, then it’s still Solomon who has the real power no matter what puppet the people choose to sit on the throne. It’s like when a country has a weak democracy and a strong military. Sure, there’s a president, but we all know the top general is the one with the REAL power. Except it’s even worse, because Solomon effectively IS the military all by himself, so it’s not like you could even have the possibility of some of the military backing the legitimate ruler. Solomon has no need to appease anyone in order to secure power, Solomon IS power. There is no give and take, no checks and balances, when one man can kill and army before his shirt hits the floor.
All this really does is destabilize the only dictator of the seven who’s even attempting to rule benevolently. I get where White Chain is coming from, but I simply don’t see how her ideals would work in a multiverse like KSBD
First, you forget that Allison has the Master Key, Cio has a fanclub despite no longer being Ebon, Nyave already knows how to organize people, Zaid spent his time in the Celestial empire being directly tutored by Solomon, and White Chain was *already* building a new faction of angels, even before she finished transitioning. Our little Godslayers can, together, hold the Empire steady while it regains its feet.
Also. Why you gotta do my boy Mammon dirty like that? While the bankers are shit to their debtors, Mammon himself is a big ol’ grandpa to his faction.
“Supreme executive power comes from a mandate of the masses, not some rock in your head!”
Now, if Solomon is smart, he’ll agree. This empire is a good one, and can grow without him. It doesn’t need him.
Time to go make a NEW empire some place that DOES need him. He’ll enjoy that.
The curse of writing, or role playing, a character beyond your intelligence or experience is that you are always still limited to your experience and imagination. Still love this comic, but this is a perfect example.
White Chain’s complaint that the illusion of peace and justice cannot last beyond Solomon is the error made by someone who lives a finite life. Her alternative offers no discernible difference. The illusion of ‘civility’ and ‘justice’ of self government will only last so long as a culture embraces it. Her option is no less finite; it is no less mortal.
Democracy is the tyranny of the many, and the illusion of it’s civility remains only so long as cultural norms reinforce it as just. We see it now in America, as the relentlessly oppressed raise their voices against the central culture that has embraced the pain of the downtrodden for the enrichment of those deemed righteous. Once their cries turn public opinion to their cause, and cultural norms shift to their acceptance, these same groups will in turn do to other’s as was done to them as they gain greater access to government. For the exercise of governance is always an act of aggression and violence. State policy is the continuation of war by other means.
A being as old as White Chain would know that peace is not an ideal we achieve, but that it is instead an illusion, a moment in time between pain: the eye of the storm of contest. White Chain’s moment of growth should have been a recognition that justice is equally illusive. Justice is not some Platonic Form or Ideal we chase; it is an emotional appeal we use as a balm to assuage our guilt over our wrath. Her denial of the righteous path to forge her own truth should have been a moment of growth beyond the petty lies we clothe ourselves in. This speech is not hopeful; it is vainglorious and intellectually shallow.
Wholeheartly agreed with your take on this.
Sir and or ma’am, this entire comic is thematically centered around hero narratives. This is not actually about governance. This is about creating a foil. A fallen hero who saved a world and then never learned to let go. The burden must be taken up by others. Those who master the Wheel cannot break it.
But also: have you not been paying attention to what an authoritarian garbage fire Solomon’s empire is? Where lying to officials results in execution? Where they take children from people and never let their parents see them again? Sex with active soldiers result in 6 months hard labor? Or your citizenship and thus all your meager rights can be revoked for being a soldier who had sex? Did you not see all those people who rather kill Solomon than live in the lap of luxury in the previous fight? You really think democracy is worse than THIS? Solomon isn’t a philosopher king, he is, in fact, a tyrant. And White Chain is right to try to reform such a government, even if she’s putting her request in terms she knows Solomon wants to hear.
Ah! The list of slights and wrongs of the other. Our blows against each other turn the wheel again as we dream of a pure and imagined justice – a lie, justifying our own acts of violence against others, just as they did before as well. Each telling ourselves, “At least I am not them, the Other!” Government’s a boot no-matter it’s shape, it fits a foot & neck, there’s no escaping this fate. We yearn for a contradiction that cannot exist, for there is no rule without violence: someone always suffers under the wrath of the other. When God chose existence beyond Itself, It chose conflict. Only a void or a return to a singularity can yield a different result.
There
Is
No
Alternative
That
Does
Not
End
(More or Less)
The
Same
Only the flavor of the boot polish is ever different. If she can learn, White Chain should know this by now, or she should still be growing towards it. Coming to terms with the pain of this truth should be the arc of her story – the conflict between the self and the other. That there is no perfect answer that removes this so long as both exist, and that both existing is the bittersweet, painful effing point.
So much of her pain through her existence has been self inflicted as she ascribed to a lie of righteousness that did not fit. She indulged in this pain for a false comfort, this lie of righteousness, that only ever brought her more pain; not a balm at all, this false comfort. More than anyone, she should recognize that we cannot remove the innate conflict within existence. More than anyone she should know that any change will still yield conflict and pain, albeit conflict of another flavor. This struggle has been her entire existence. It is fine if she has not reached this point in her growth, but her transformation suggests a climax of character growth within the story, and it should be either a visual representation of this or the final source of conflict that drives her further towards this end growth.
Instead, after this faux climax, she has only brought an end to Solomon’s temporary lie of peace more quickly than it otherwise would have ended. This is not erroneous in itself, but her justification for doing so is inherently erroneous. She lies to herself that she can build something different in any measurable manner. She cannot; this is the blessed state of existence. She has effectively become Solomon the Second, long may she reign (transient as it is). And the Majority of the Mob will effectively become Solomon the Third, long may they reign (transient as that will be). She upends a lie to insert her own; all the while she lies to herself and says, “At least I am not him, Solomon!” I am sure Solomon comforted himself with precisely the same lie when he failed to let go; we all do, after all. It is the ever present, nefarious lie of justice. Mammon & his Priests of the Count could not keep track of the tally of conflict this lie has created.
We expect our heroes to lie to existence; to demand a change be recognized and succeed. This is heroic. But we also demand our heroes be honest with themselves and with us, the readers, as failure to do so makes them false to us in a way that is unforgivable. White Chain is dishonest with herself in a way that she should have grown past by now, or she should be in the grips of still wrestling with this demon. And this is the failing of the comic. She did not grow in an appreciable way; she repeats the same mistake UNAWARE she is doing so when she had such a unique opportunity for growth. A nearly singular existence that should shape a singular view…that instead fails just as the rest of us fail and views the world through repetitive eyes. This moment is precisely what it first looked like when Solomon failed to let go; she is holding on with a death grip to this lie of rationalizing rule of law and a belief in the eternal (both false). She thinks this is change because it feels different; it is not. The act of her request is self contradicting, and she therefor represents precisely the same thing Solomon does: A fallen hero who saved a world and then never learned to let go. She fails to acknowledge the world cannot be saved as it is. There is no changing this as things stand.
And so the Wheel turns, and turns, and turns. Never changing except in our perspective. After all, that is what a wheel does. How sad; it is enough to make a stone weep.
Small caveat: My hope is that the author will have Solomon call White Chain out on all of the above as he abdicates the throne, that White Chain witnesses the conflict & pain her lack of honesty creates, and that this pushes her further towards her final bit of character growth. I doubt it, as I believe the author would have saved her physical transformation for that moment, and it’s simply baffling she would even believe this is a good option in the first place. This is, likely, effectively White Chain. Sadly, I expect we have what we see: a being as old as existence that has all the same arrogance and failings as me. Some heroes you just expect to be genuinely heroic; unlike the majority of the murder hobos throughout the stories we tell ourselves. White Chain was one of them for me.
I’m not going to go into ideology with you here, because I don’t see it going anywhere, but White Chain hasn’t asked Solomon to give up the power of his key nor his investment in the life of the empire… she’s reminded him of what he already knows, which is “when you die, it dies. Unless you let it grow.”
She’s not saying”throw the whole place to the wolves”, she’s saying “give it the opportunity to grow, change, and develop agency.”
Growth can be painful and the empire may change drastically or only a little, but once it can stand on its own two feet, it has a chance of surviving after Solomon or whatever other demiurge exists.
She’s not asking him to quit everything, just to stop micro-managing every element of the empire.
So, tl;dr:
White Chain is not advocating for peace or even specifically democracy, but rather the growth-change-agency cycle that survival depends on.
Solomon’s empire is stagnation incarnate.
She litterly asked him to give up the throne. She didn’t say let the people decide what goes in your empire. Sge said to let them just take control and decide.
Well said. If White Chain had chastised Solomon for creating an Empire who’s conditions were incapable of producing a proper heir, THAT would have made infinitely more sense than this democratic schlock. Democracy — ESPECIALLY in such a world as this — enjoys no special status. It is not more noble than imperial rule, and indeed, is usually less so.
Perhaps White Chain wishes for the people of Solomon’s empire to forge a destiny from each other’s blood? That would be the result of what she proposes.
I hadn’t thought of that, but it would make quite a bit more sense for her to chastise him for that. He clearly revels in producing no suitable heir. It seems to feed his ego that none can measure up to him even as its a source of solitude and anguish. I don’t understand why she would care that the people repeat the same process that Solomon once did but in a more regular fashion.
It’s true. If there was such thing as a thing as a truly benevolent immortal god-king, I’d say leave him to it. Whether Solomon David fits that description is not clear, but it seems unlikely.
Perhaps America is not a good example of democracy because it isn’t a democracy at all. Regardless of the system of government, people’s blood will be spilt. A more important thing to focus on is corruption, which is unavoidable. Can you build a system capable of recognising and fighting against corruption?
Yes. You simply have to install Watchers. Then you get someone to Watch the Watchers. I’m…unsure who Watches the Watchers of the Watchers, but I’m sure we can figure that one out later. It seems unimportant.
And true, America is not a democracy but rather a republic. However, while many nations use a democratic style system for election, I don’t believe there has ever been a true democracy in the world. A system where every citizen votes equally on every issue rather than simply electing a representative to do it for you? Sounds exhaustive. Most of us Americans can’t be bothered to vote once every few years.
Athens had a true, participating democracy for a while, but their definition of “citizens” was narrow: only men, and only those owning sufficient land. And many of the eligible citizens missed most debates because they were away from the city managing their estates.
If all adults are citizens, then you can’t have all citizens engaging in all debates and votes; there isn’t enough time.
I interpret the issue as one of change itself. Solomon David’s empire is solid, as the God King makes it so. In its rigidity, it refutes change.
This also reflects White Chain’s past- 1 Michael and his inane ramblings in reference to the Cycle, infertile and unchanging.
White Chain wishes for the Celestial Empire to take its own reigns. For better or for ill.
This is such a hilariously bad idea I do NOT think white chain is thinking this through at all. She just gained a new body and won a fight she (lets be real) would not have won without plot armor.
Now she wants to give the Key to the people???
Gog Agog is. Right. There.
You know the demiurge thats takes over…PEOPLE.
I do not foresee this ending well at all…
Giving up the empire does not require that Solomon gives up his key. He can flounce off, leaving all his gates wide open, and do Royal things with his god-power.
By give key he means leave control. Which if he does gog can swoop in and take over enough people to where got is ruling the democracy.
Giving his people agency is not the same as giving up all his power and stake in the well-being of his empire.
White Chain is asking him to let his people grow and change so that one day they can control their own destiny. She isn’t asking him to throw them to the wolves: quite the opposite.
Solomon knows the empire dies with him. White Chain knows. She’s asking him to save it by letting it _change._ This may be a painful process (as with all growth) but if it can stand on its own two feet, when Solomon is inevitably defeated or dies, the empire will be different but not annihilated.
But what if the people have a preference for letting Solomon handle all the demiurge stuff, and don’t want to rule themselves? It seems like White Chain should at least ask the crowd about their opinion on this…
Aye, people have much more important things to think about than ruling.
White Chain isn’t asking him to give up all his power or stake in the empire, simply to let it grow, change and develop its own agency. It will be a transition. Solomon will be free to do as he will, but I suspect he will choose to protect his empire from the interests of the other demiurges, but let the empire grow organically according to the will of the people, should he accept White Chain’s words.
No no NO, oh Father and Lord, NO! I will have to apply for an entirely separate set of permits for hygenic and lawful food service, and it will be ages until I even know to whom! We’ve just expanded and rent will come due–please no! Stay with us!
Surebaet Noodles–it’s a “sure bet” you’ll love your bowl!
This is the perfect excuse to just bail man, take it!
If shit hits the fan you can blame it on the “angel” who defeated you on combat and asked for it, it is a free get out of jail card!
This probably will never happen again, you got to retire early, vacations my dude!
I don’t know how wise that would be in the long run, when one of the clearly evil people in very close contact with Solomon is a kind of person that can be many.
What’s with all the monarchists in the chat?
Kinda cringe ngl.
Honestly thought, given the story of this comic, it’d mostly be anarchists who would be willing to read this far.
Maybe they’re all anarcho-monarchists?
It’s super creepy! Any epic fantasy is going to bring its share of paleocons who are there because they love feudalism but whew this is a lot
Methinks our reprobate Bob brought “friends” of his ideals when he circumvented his ban.
It is the nature of the beast that when you take action against the reprehensible, it whines into the void to summon fellow cultists of its kind.
(Out of character translation: I’m willing to bet that Bob whined to a ‘chan when he got banned, so they could dogpile the comments. That way, eventually Abaddon is forced to disable comments, and they can claim “victory” by whining to twitter later about “muh freeze peach”)
Good point, but also bold to assume this is a chan board mobilizing and not one very determined dude with a VPN. I’ve been thinking half these guys who use that specific archaic/pompous nerd register like saying “Ah!” are the comment troll version of “my paper soldiers form a wall, five paces thick and twice as tall” I don’t comment here often enough to know the political slant, but I know the in-character additions to the liturgy like rabbinic commentary has been a huge part of the community, and if you’re being raided I’m sorry to hear it.
Okay. I’ll drop the rp until the Pomposities are gone. (My name for these fuckers because only one of them are even close to arguing in good faith, and the rest sound like someone taught Ben Shapiro to sound like an englishman.)
But simply put, I feel like there’s at least three, maybe four, because the “voice” of each is suitably different beyond Bob’s ability to replicate. (Remember, Bob was banned specifically because of his being a particularly dense and bellicose example of the Dunning Kruger effect) For example, 42 Fragments, while posting some bad takes, and borderline bad faith, at least puts soke effort into a respectful tone, and even seemingly broke with the hive in asking not to be called a monarchist, while none of the others have even implied they noticed people calling them monarchists for simping on Salami Daddy. Versus “Illusion of Peace And Justice” who sounds like someone tried to gentrify tumblr discourse, and honestly reads like a cryptofascist.
So while I’ll agree that a couple of these do smell like VPN abuse, there’s enough voices involved that Bob had to source them from somewhere else, either the more obnoxious parts of Reddit, or (judging by the lack of “kys fa***t”) the “better” parts of 4chan. (8chan is right out. Abaddon woulda made a blog post about being doxxed by now.)
What did Bob do that was worthy of being banned? Genuinely Curious.
C’mon solomon, you dont even *like* being emperor
Suppose that Solomon abdicates, takes away his key, and is not robbed of it by the other 6. Suppose that Allison locks all the gates to the Worlds of the Celestial ex-Empire with the master key. Are those worlds then safe?
He’s not asked to give up his Key, just his Empire. At least, that’s how I read White Chain’s request.
Yes, I agree. My point is, if Solomon’s key is secure and Allison locks the gates, can the demiurges other than Solomon invade the ex-imperial worlds or are they robustly locked out?
Logic would say they’re locked, just like “our” Earth is locked until Mottom chooses to open the door. That’s not to say Demiurges haven’t found ways to crack those locks open in the millennia they’ve been fighting each other xD
Establishing democracy through a fist fight just like George Washington!
Anyone who has study history knows this won’t end well for Solomon’s kingdom.
Something I just noticed: in the last panel, does it seem to anybody else that Cio is ogling White Chain? Or is that just me?
The only thing Solomon is thinking about is “nice buns yo ugot there”.
Shaking in fear and anticipation.
There’s one big problem-the powerful are in a place where there is a monopoly of ability to commit and survive violence.
Think for a moment about Earth. Whatever else can be said about humans on Earth-there is not a single human being that cannot be slain by another human with a well-placed dagger or bullet. They might be skilled, they might be armored, they might have access to guards or an army or a whole country of protectors. It doesn’t matter-the most powerful man and the weakest of children will die if you put a bullet in their head or a dagger in their heart, and once that point is reached…you can’t escape that. And the tools are accessible-it isn’t hard if you have access to a good home supply store and a knowledge of chemistry to make a decent bomb. A decent machine shop can make a good rifle, easily-even if it’s black powder, you can rifle it and build a good firing mechanism and good-to-great bullets.
But, as we’ve seen, the world that exists here is very medieval in it’s access to violence. There is a pinnacle of access and ability of violence-the only near comparison to our world is the period of time between the fall of Rome and the development of the Welsh longbow. The ability to be capable of effective violence-the ability to make and wear armor, learn how to use a weapon, even be fed sufficiently to grow and develop a body strong enough to carry armor and weapons-is significantly different in scale. There was good, and even great infantry in Europe during the Middle Ages. But, it was ultimately the number of and the quality of knights on horseback that determined how powerful your army was. And, having that power granted you privilege (the real kind, not the stuff that Social Justice Zealots make up)-because nobody that didn’t have access to more power could stop you, not really.
But here…it takes a great deal of effort and talent to develop a dangerous level of violence. And, the very pinnacle is restricted to only seven beings. Beings that-at minimum-would require probably a saturation strike with tactical nuclear weapons to harm or kill in our world.
If the powerful cannot be made fearful of violence from even the lowest, any government that is not automatically an oligarchy of some kind is built only upon the courtesy and consent of the powerful.
And, there are amazingly few people that have anywhere with that kind of power that have true courtesy and an ability to give consent.
My new acquaintance with the rare name, I applaud your analysis, and if this were a world with metaphysics more similar to that espoused in games like the Earths call “Dungeons and Dragons,” I’d be inclined to believe you. But as a minor angel with a longer-than-mortal Iteration-span, I do have two minor points to quibble. One, the Narrative Zoss has placed is that one shall reach heaven *through* violence. That is, in the first point means cooperation and dialogue can bring even Tyrants low, though our Godslayers are individually much weaker, and in the second, that astute followers of this Narrative have noticed, being that it’s neither about how thoroughly you own your court (Incubus, Mottom, with Mammon being an exception specifically because his court genuinely cares for him, and he allows them the agency to do so effectively. He asks much less of his faction than any of the other Seven. ) nor how much raw power you have (Jagganoth, Solomon David). Rather, following Zoss’s example, ROYALTY ties both strength of conviction, and adaptability, into strength of character, and rewards *that* with power. Examples: Our Conquering King, Enlightener of Angels, broke into Heaven by cleverness, finding the point where the Arts and the Sciences meet. Meti, who is the true owner of Incubus’s Key, and obtained it by wisdom, self-reflection, and the will to put that into action. Or Solomon David, humbled by an 82nd-iteration angel who by all rights shouldn’t have been able to move in his stopped time, applied the same conviction to live as her true self into teaching the lessons she had learned.
In short, the first point is thus: just because the secrets to both Power and Royalty are more easily kept in this world, does not change the fact that True ROYALTY can bring either, and is only deceptively difficult to learn, and not truly gatekept.
My second point is much simpler to explain. I do not know of any Social Justice Zealots, but privilege is tangible, and explained easily in concrete terms. Privilege does not mean that your life is automatically easy. It merely means that a given factor beyond your control is not actively making it harder. Our sister White Chain is privileged in one way by having the innate power and knowledge of angels. However, her brother Vigilant Gaze has a privilege that she does not in his being a brother, and not facing the ridicule and abuses that she does for “clinging to insipid gender”
I hope I have explained, and more strongly hope that those arguin in bad faith do not waste my time like our reprobate Bob has committed himself to doing.
Thank you, angel.
With respect, your summation of Feudal Military Aristocracy is more ‘romantic’ than ‘accurate’
The military value of a Feudal Knight isn’t that he is a dude in armor on a horse. That’s incidental. That’s a guy on a horse.
The value of the knight is the food his land produces, the tithes it generates for the overlord, the hopefully-stable-border it generates, and the ranks of Poor Fucking Infantry that he can levy when called.
Spoken like what I would expect a stereotypical American to speak, White Chain.
I think that going to be a big NO.
>We see it now in America, as the relentlessly oppressed raise their voices against the central culture that has embraced the pain of the downtrodden for the enrichment of those deemed righteous. Once their cries turn public opinion to their cause, and cultural norms shift to their acceptance, these same groups will in turn do to other’s as was done to them as they gain greater access to government
Yo Abbadon, are we really going to let “reverse racism and white slavery are America’s future thanks to the tyranny of BLM” talk in the comments? This seems a little bit openly white nationalist/fascist for this space, I have to say.
Maybe I’m being naive and/or uninformed from a European POV, but couldn’t this paragraph also mean that BLM is protesting against the overarching capitalist culture where the white rich people deserve to be at the top for their perceived success at life?
Yeah sure, but the paranoia that black and other marginalized people will take revenge once they get more representation in government is some racist, race war-baiting nonsense. If you’re from the EU it’s similar to xenophobic “the immigrants are taking over” paranoia, but a lot nastier. It’s positioning the struggle for justice and civil rights as not just pointless, but dangerous, because of a theoretical cycle of exploitation that shouldn’t be allowed to progress because it’s only going to lead to widespread white oppression. Google any relevant terms and “race war” to get a glimpse of this kind of thinking, it’s ugly stuff.
….? The guy is talking about the hypocrisy of -any- ideologically driven stance and how it creates a cycle of violence/revenge.
No idea how you projected white nationalism/fascism onto that?
Reminds me of an old saying about assumptions.
Indeed, sealioning stranger. Such as the assumption of false equivalency between BLM and the Klan.
Man, one thing that reading the comments has taught me.
Nerds *really* fucking hate democracy, holy shit.
I mean, if you can explain how this is supposed to work, then go ahead.
But as far as I can see, the only thing the future has in store for the people of the (former) Celestial Empire is pain. Solomon was ultimately the only thing preventing it from being ass-raped by all the other demiurges. He leaves, government breaks apart, anarchy starts, the people themselves start murdering each other, the demiurges (or really any sufficiently powerful entity) show up and then once again the people are under a dictatorship, except this time its even more oppressive than Solomon’s Big Brother state.
There is literally no hope for democracy in a world where a single person with just the right genes or talents can succesfully become more powerful than a billion people put together. It won’t last a month.
Hmmm, glancing through the comments, some people seem to think this will be the doom of the empire…
But as White Chain and Solomon both know, it’s already doomed: when Solomon inevitably dies or is defeated, then everything collapses into chaos. However, if he hands over the reigns to the people in a transition of power, staying on at first to act as a guide, then the empire has a chance of making itself into something that will survive.
It will change (perhaps to a point that it will be almost unrecognisable), but it will not be annihilated.
Alison is an in-comic representation of this agency-growth-change cycle. Solomon’s rigidity is a representation of the the law set in stone and unchanging, like the order of angels, which is equally doomed unless they try to change.
That’s been an overarching theme of the whole comic: nothing can stay the same and survive. People with no agency will crumble. Growth can be painful, but is necessary for change and agency. This is an ongoing process.
Better question. Why would the people of the Celestial Empire even want to be united? There are thousands of different worlds with vastly different cultures inside the empire, and as far I can understand, literally the only thing keeping them together is Solomon. Wouldn’t it make sense for all the different cultures to create their own nations instead of uniting into some kind of multiversal “Celestial Republic” where no one ever gets anything done because their cultures clash so much?
It is like when Austria-Hungary broke apart. The peoples of that Empire stuck together because the Habsburgs were their “rightful” rulers, at least in the eyes of a not-insignificant portion of the people, but once the Habsburgs were gone and democracy came rushing in, all the different ethnicities of that empire simply formed their own individual nations, instead of sticking together. Isn’t this the more likely result?
They are already united. Why would they want to be separate? This isnt like Nadia’s worlds left to rot. His people have lived under a single unified bureaucracy and culture for thousands of years. Really the only thing he does is protect them from other demiurges. His vast bureaucratic complex manages everything else.
I love democracy, but hate the pain and conflict involved in getting there. I seek a less-tragic path to democracy. I suspect that many feel the same way. Please don’t misrepresent us as monarchists.
I do not think you are, upon reflection. And i apologize for ridiculing you as such. However, many of these people may deny being named such, but they have such an irrational hatred of Solomon heeding White Chain’s request that they fail to think about how simple it could be to solve the problems that might result from Solomon’s abdication (we call that misogyny).
And the rest are deliberately misrepresenting both real-world politics and the nature of what’s going on in the Wheel in an attempt to justify Solomon’s rule, all but call White Chain a stupid bitch, etc etc. while actively using fascist dogwhistles and concepts.
Again, you are so far the exception. And the only exception.
It’s more that the universe we happen to be talking about is a place where ‘democracy’ is very likely to result in disaster. People seem to think the only danger is the Seven, but we’ve seen that even heaven is rotten to the core. There can be no true civilisation in a world as corrupt as this.
How many people are going to die just so White Chain can feel good about herself. I hope this blows up in her face
Wow, you must be new to the comic. Coming with the recent raid I see?
The point of this entire arc is quintessentially contained within the latest parable of Intra. The Universal War was coming either way, the balance of power between the demiurges couldn’t last forever, not when Jagganoth grows stronger while Mottom, Jadis and Mammon both wane. Sometimes, violence against injustice and tyranny is the best choice and the best outcome.
White Chain has defeated and humbled Solomon. It’s up to him to not be a monster now, to prove he was worthy of what he claimed. If he is truly the enlightened, wise and kindly ruler he claims to be, he’ll protect his people even without having power over them, out of a sense of duty, and he’ll prove that the people didn’t need his rule, only the aid of his martial arts. If he is a monster through and through in the end and refuses to protect the people he claims his, White Chain will be proven fully in the right to depose him, since he was never a dutiful ruler – merely a self-indulgent tyrant exploiting the vast majority of his demense and ruling with a horrible, suffocating iron fist just to build a shiny marble city on a hill that couldn’t last, and which he didn’t even care to defend like the spineless coward he is.
I like this one, although it could be construed as a Dr Manhattan’s Threat too… Is the Celestial People truly free if there is an unstoppable killing machine keeping watch over them?