King of Swords 4-37
Chapter: 4
Dancing days are here again,
As the summer evenings grow,
I got my flower, I got my power,
I got a woman, who knows.
Kill Six Billion Demons
Seeker of Thrones
Dancing days are here again,
As the summer evenings grow,
I got my flower, I got my power,
I got a woman, who knows.
Learning the arts
Sit down at my table. Put your mind at ease. If you relax it will enable me to do anything I please.
Yes, this is exactly how the arts should be learned.
Agreed, a reacharound is a beautiful thing.
…and we are being teased mercilessly!
Not that we would ask for mercy anyway
The innuendo is beautiful, as well as the implications.
Our Young King is learning combat and magic!
Looks like we have a hybrid class.
That wouldst be a BARD from the tales of yore.
Warrior Mage Rogue.
I am not so sure about the link with the elements though that may be another incarnation of Bard.
Fighter, rogue, *druid*.
The old bard was a weird ass class.
Just so, weird, weird class. My buddy back in the early 00’s found out that I could play classical guitar and refused to let me play a bard (or at least, refused to let me use bardic perf.) unless I really played music at the table. I said no and rolled a different character.
I understand why you wouldn’t want to, but you can’t blame your buddy for trying to get more immersive in the roleplaying.
You play guitar?
Your Bard plays the drums.
I don’t think it would have fit. Anyways I wish that campaign hadn’t fallen apart after two sessions. He and I were secretly in cahoots and my bard was going to get “kidnapped” and then return as the main villain who’d been just offscreen for most of the campaign. The whole thing was in a weird Spelljammer/Planescape setting not entirely unlike KSBD, now that I think about it.
Innuendo? Wait until you get to the next page. 😉
“Now. The Arts are three: Red, White, and Black.”
Because if there’s anything YISUN hated more than stagnation, it’s Ramp (Green) and Countermagic (Blue). [Magic: The Gathering joke]
Man, when I did this with my lava lamp, all I got was sick.
Er, as I was saying, that was not supposed to land here, but I do appreciate a good MTG joke :3
Pardon my ignorance, but I don’t get the lava lamp reference.
Could you please explain? If you mean the motions of the spell, then wow.
I think TachyonCode was making a joke referring to how the magic looks like the stuff inside a lava lamp, which you are not supposed to remove from said lamp as it can be quite toxic (particularly in older lamps), but accidentally replied to Bluecho instead of making a new comment.
Thankye! I didn’t know people actually tried to take the wax out.
Why do you sound disappointed? You changed You into Sick You. Merely learn to do the actions in reverse and you can heal any ill.
brilliant! We may make a healer out of you yet!
Mardu’s always ready for battle !
Sounds about right, that’s why every good part of my blue/green commander deck has been banned.
LIAR! AHAHAHAHAHAHAH!
Gotcha =D That was a brilliant one.
So many candles, the quantity of which must surely be brought to the attention of the Coalition of wax drippers guild.
The real lunacy is that they’re on the bed, unless that bed is like, only the finest of memory foam.
It could just be a wooden plank or slab of stone.
I’m certain that such amateurish drippings would leave the guild quite unconcerned.
OH MYYYY
Here’s the link from hover text
youtube.com/watch?v=JpNy6z5sz1M
Bless you, Wander-ar
Blessed be the ones who hover over the truth and patiently dive into it; and then share it with the world. Because if Ysun hates something is to see that his lies don’t change into truths
Good choice of music.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JpNy6z5sz1M
My response.
https://youtu.be/YAsP_77Y_xU?t=76
Love what Cio did with her hair, though the lenght doesn’t look consistent from one panel to the next.
a thing of beauty
can eschew
consistency
If you were seeking consistency, you would have sought an angel, for they are consistency (and indeed constancy) made animate. To be a devil is to be change itself, though the masks do make them rather more static than is their deep nature. Not that that extends to external trivialities like hair and such.
Yup, totally wasn’t expecting anything out of the norm, absolutely
Hrmm… Y’know it’s alright, I said it’s alright >.> …to trim down the magic color wheel. After all…
What color IS magic?
~ MAGE
Upside: No more Nexus of Fate.
Green. True magic is green.
Octarine. Magic is octarine.
What a strange and fascinating universe you hail from. I have read much of what transpires across the back of Great A’Tuin, but have never had the chance to travel there myself.
I have and my advice is: don’t go.
I once found myself drinking in a tavern there when a man snatched my wallet and when I took it to the guards they merely shrugged and said be was a licensed thief, so naturally I went after him and broke every major bone in his body.
10 minutes later this redheaded young man and a huge stone gentleman armed with a siege weapon came after me and arrested me for assault.
What kind of a travesty of a justice system is that where one can’t even break a thief’s body?
You got off lucky. You could have used the “M word” in that tavern, and then we would have not been having this conversation.
My cosmography may be lacking, but if I recall that world lies near the edge of God Mammon’s portion of creation, does it not? In a far corner yet unconquered? I’m sure the adherents of the count will have much to say about licensed thievery once priest-clerks arrive in force. Though, given the war betwixt the Dragon and Mother Om, that world may yet lie untouched for some time…
Truthfully, I have little desire to travel there. Given the renown the locals heap upon the works of “Stupid-Blooded Johnson”, they seem to have no appreciation for actual beauty or inspiration. I would not waste the trip.
I actually got the chance to ask a priest about that.
He said “my man, we are not touching that world, we sent the last 121 and his unit down there and they got massacred by a geriatric barbarian and his posse, I shudder just to think how many we would have to send in order to actually get a hold on its finances, so we just hide its existence from the high priests”
It is somewhat wheel colored
The adept of the hidden arts knows the truth: Magic is Octarine.
But what good is the King’s magic if the peasant can’t see it?
Ysun loves the lies, the magic that can’t be seen and the names of the angels in their hollow bodies and the prophets that are wrong and the demiurge-kings who fight for their lifes. All of it is a Ysun lie, as Ysun himself is. And there’s no better lie than the one thet can’t be seen because it’s marked by a lack
Proper magic is blue and shiny and don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. What always powers magic? Mana. What color is mana? Blue. Bam, checkmate.
Unless it’s Red. Or Black. Or White. Or Green. Or Colorless, which is not a color.
It’s octarine!
Royal magic is purple.
…Nice
Giggity
Magic. Powered by Six billion levels of UST.
You’re assuming they haven’t been busy resolving it over the timeskip :P.
“Un, gobohIyo godo, kokohomo hU. Un, robo hUol U UrekeSozU ma UrokoSozU.
Fight. Carve your way through the life your were cursed to have. Dedicate yourself to yourself instead of godly decisions.
Fight. The story of yourself you desire, despite its unlikeliness, only comes from extending soulful fire into battle and extending furious emotions into battle.”
Twentysecond student of Bagoret – FBC 029
hahaha man am I uncomfortable with a man writing this
pleasedontbeweirdpleasedontbeweirdpleasedontbeweird
Seems like a silly comment for a comic about subverting gender roles. Girls can make creepy and cringe inducing stuff as well. My mind goes to all the horrible Harry Potter fanfics I’ve seen
I am personally tentatively okay with Abbadon writing this, if nervous about how it could go wrong, but a spectator certainly has cause to be concerned, and calling that “silly” was pretty thoughtless. Yes, the comic has been good about gender so far, but that’s certainly not a guarantee of it continuing to be good. There’s so much cultural bullshit pushing and expecting men to be voyeuristic about queer women that it’s reasonable to be nervous. Even if you trust Abbadon’s intentions (which I do but which neither of us can verify) the default ways to represent queer women’s sexuality as someone who isn’t a queer woman are all already voyeuristic. Abbadon is going to have to walk a hell of a tightrope to not do that, and it’s perfectly reasonable to be worried that he can’t or won’t.
The fact that women can make creepy things is true but irrelevant to concerns about a man writing sexual tension between queer women. It’s not a contest where people of one gender being creepy makes different concerns about people of another gender being creepy less valid.
It is a touchy subject but Spectator’s comment marks the reason for their tentativeness as “Abaddon is a man”. While not explicit, it implies they would be more comfortable with a woman writing this. This preemptive judgement (aka prejudice) seems, like I said, a silly thing to bring up in the comments of a comic dealing with gender roles and confused romantic feelings.
Bringing up “woman do it too” is also quite relevant. Spectators fear is that a man is more likely to make it creepy than a woman, which is, again, silly. Women and men have equal ability to be creepy.
I understand the fear. I think a knee jerk exploration of that tension to be counter-productive to the message of the comic.
Thank you to everyone backing me up here.
I would like to point out that this guy’s name is literally “2B’sWhistlingButthole”. Showing your hand a bit early, no?
Let’s not forget that Abaddon has by his own admission also edited pages (00001’s splash panel for example) that were “too horny”. Other than that, the Friendly Enigma and Chimerical here have said everything I possibly could.
@Mythee
That’s lovely. I do appreciate the visibility of romance between women. However, it is undeniable that men often overstep when writing these relationships. I simply hope Abaddon does not.
Which hand? The hand that says I watched AngriestPat’s play through of Nier Automata on twitch and I found a joke that his girlfriend made about 2B running so fast and her butt is so big that her butthole whistles to be quite humorous? Because that’s the only hand my name shows
My problem with the original statement remains that you are calling out Abaddon’s gender as a contributor to the creep. My argument is that either gender has an equal chance of making this creepy. But this may just be a difference of opinion and I apologize if I upset anyone from my comments
I am happy we all agree that the tackling of this subject matter, when done right, is a good thing. The fact that is the subject itself makes people weary is all the more reason to address the issue
“My problem with the original statement remains that you are calling out Abaddon’s gender as a contributor to the creep.”
Well, I am sorry you feel that way. I am also sorry that we live in a world where men frequently fetishize lesbians/bisexual women, and that in this world this often filters through into the content they create.
Humans fetishize many things, and not just in a sexual manner. The fetishism I see from women towards gay/bisexual men is rather rampant in my home town (San Francisco). Not just in a sexual way (yaoi and such) but also in the idealized stereotype of the “Gay Friend”. It’s quite silly.
I am sorry for you though that the harsh realities of the world and the human condition has effected you in such a way that you cannot see past it. That your knee jerk reaction is one of prejudice to the point of having to express your concern. It’s similar in my mind as saying “I don’t know about having a male nanny” or “Girls can’t be hardcore gamers”. Having that mentality paints the work of the people around you in a judgemental light and makes it all the easier to see faults that might not even be there.
But that is my way of thinking. I apologize if it doesn’t conform to your way of thinking.
You sound passive-aggressive, Butthole. Spectator has concerns; they are legitimate concerns, though hopefully invalid in this specific case, and there’s nothing wrong with expressing them. Everyone’s perceptions are coloured by their own experiences, and to raise a concern is not to make an accusation. Yes, in an ideal world none of this stuff matters, but we’re all here in purgatory together, we’re entitled to address the stuff that is, it being so much more prevalent than the stuff that should be. Please don’t be offended by that. It’s kind of important that we’re able to mention our concerns, y’know?
I’ll admit I was rather passive aggressive in that previous post and I apologize. Closed minded views just grind my gears, even if it’s a closed minded view that I agree with. It is good to express concerns but it is also important to self reflect on those concerns and judge if they are legitimate.
Spectator, I don’t mean to call you closed minded either. You have views shaped by your expierencee and I am in no position to judge them. Do you at understand or at least accept my views?
I think it’s great for people of any gender and orientation to celebrate other peoples genders and orientations and write sex-positivity stories and all that!
WhistlingButthole: Most men are chill. Enough of us, disproportionate to the gender split, are NOT chill that it’s totally a legit concern. I like guys, and yes women can sometimes be a bit creepy about male-male relationships, but it’s just a fact of life that men are way more likely to be sexually creepy than women, enough that you’d be a bit leery about it potentially spoiling an otherwise good comic. It’s not silly, it’s empirical.
abaddon has given me literally no reason to suspect any creepy or weird inclinations, and i say this as a gay woman pretty finely tuned to this
like, we all have the kneejerk reaction but its been like literal months with nothing bad so its pretty wild to have this reaction NOW instead of when they had their first kiss
It’s pretty wild to assume I never took issue with earlier panels of the comic. See my comment where I reference ABADDON HIMSELF stating he had to edit panels for being “too horny”.
As Enigma stated earlier:
“There’s so much cultural bullshit pushing and expecting men to be voyeuristic about queer women that it’s reasonable to be nervous. Even if you trust Abbadon’s intentions (which I do but which neither of us can verify) the default ways to represent queer women’s sexuality as someone who isn’t a queer woman are all already voyeuristic. Abbadon is going to have to walk a hell of a tightrope to not do that, and it’s perfectly reasonable to be worried that he can’t or won’t.”
You just cant ever win with people like you, if he didnt include any suggestive stuff then you would be complaining about their relationship being “invisible”, then you go somewhere else and complain about the lack of lgbt representation
“People like you” if this is basically calling me an “SJW” I feel like you’ve come to the wrong comic.
Regardless, it is perfectly fine to critique content. Even if it is content you like!
It often feels like the men who are trying to do the right thing aren’t rewarded for taking the risks they do, and instead are under intense pressure, and receive intense criticism for every minor misstep. It should come as no surprise that many decide it’s better not to try at all, and instead just cater to the dominant society, which will reward and defend them for catering to them.
We should all strive to be better, and both give and receive constructive criticism in good faith. Preemptive fearmongering, however, is not constructive criticism. Pointing out where someone has room to improve does not need to be delivered in a condescending fashion, and an attitude of “I expect to be disappointed” seems likely to be self-fulfilling.
“It often feels like the men who are trying to do the right thing aren’t rewarded for taking the risks they do.”
I take issue with the idea that men should be rewarded for not depicting women in a fetishizing manner. This isn’t a “risk” they are taking, it’s simply doing the bare minimum of not propagating misogyny. (Which, again…Abaddon has already gone back and edited pages for being “too horny”, although he really should have just come out and said it was sexist instead of brushing it off with a meme like that.)
“and instead are under intense pressure, and receive intense criticism for every minor misstep.”
All the criticism on this topic has been perfectly reasonable, honestly. If we can’t simply say “I am uncomfortable with this”, we have already lost.
“It should come as no surprise that many decide it’s better not to try at all, and instead just cater to the dominant society, which will reward and defend them for catering to them.”
This is putting the cart before the horse. Remember that dominant society is, well, men. Men often default to depicting women in unflattering ways to begin with because they are catering TO MEN. They should not be coddled because otherwise they may be too scared to not have women dance around naked in whatever medium they are making content in.
“Preemptive fearmongering, however, is not constructive criticism. Pointing out where someone has room to improve does not need to be delivered in a condescending fashion, and an attitude of “I expect to be disappointed” seems likely to be self-fulfilling.”
Believe me, I was more than excited to see the romance between Allison and Cio flourish. I have a reasonable amount of worry that it may take a less respectable turn.
It would be “preemptive fearmongering” if, again, ABADDON HIMSELF had not already corrected previous pages, and if we did not have a long trend of men depicting women and especially women who love each other as sex toys. Please do some research on the topic or read up on what women have to say about misogyny in media.
You’re ignoring the motives and pressures that shape people’s behavior, and focusing on what ought to be, without regard to what is, or how we can get from one to the other. Most people are not as moral as we’d like to believe, and do not do the right thing for its own sake — they do what society rewards, and avoid what society punishes.
So yes, not conforming to a society that propogates misogyny is taking a risk. Even more so when the other side will drop-kick you for the slightest misstep, for not sufficiently defying everything they’ve been taught their whole lives about how to act.
Your original comment said nothing about Abaddon or his prior work, and how it informed your discomfort. You just made a blanket statement, implying that any man would be incapable of writing this well, or at least unlikely to. That only serves to perpetuate the problem, because it discourages men from trying to be better.
I guess the question is which is more important to you: for men to behave better, or to not take any responsibility for creating that future, being content to express your disappointment from atop your high horse.
I want the world to change, and I’d rather find what works and do it, rather than complain that it shouldn’t have to be that way. Just because I don’t buy into your worldview does not make me uninformed or uneducated.
This the type of person you chose to pander to, Abby. I think you’ll regret it. Cunt.
Shut up, pissbaby
Wha- lewd!
I am excited to experience the magic system alongside Allison.
Lel
Also, nice hair, Cio!
Magic always scared me a little.
Yeah, I FUCKING KNEW IT! >D Learning the Art with Cio – that’s EXACTLY what I have expected since probably the page 2-25 of this book.
Herbalism is often considered the most mundane of the arts. The unfortunate truth is — despite having such a broad array of possible effects that would otherwise require the practitioner to be impossibly multidisciplinary, and further having numerous unique effects of its own that have no known method of replication by any other means — in the end it still involves a certain amount of patience, sweat, and a willingness to touch the world with your own physical hands.
These requirements are considered by many to be unglamorous, but in fact they are rewarding in their own right. Without patience, who can know the joy of watching a six-year seed bear fruit in its due time? Without sweat, who can know that they are truly incarnate and not merely lost somewhere within their own mind? Without touch-
Ah. Hm. We may have to continue this at a later time.
Yes! For a long time I have wanted to write a story that contains all sorts of magical specialties, but in the end the Master Herbal kicks everybody else’s ass!
pages came from passage now shut:
the saint, the judge, anonymous but
I know you’ll like cio’s haircut
Absolutely no innuendo of any kind
OMG! Mr. Furley was listening through the wall & you should have seen his face.
(mach speed eyebrow wiggling)
Classic bait and switch, well played Abbadon.
Whoooo Red Raiders! Red black and white! Guns up!
Guess: white = creation, black = destruction
With red being change, that would be a balanced set.
Wouldn’t that violate the first law of thermodynamics?
(^\\^)
Anything worth doing violates some law or another!
This framing, this misleading framing!
Everybody making MtG jokes and I’m sitting here giddy because it was a reference to the stages of the philosopher stone of alchemy.
This is also true. Very good, friend Derisyan. You will achieve True Gold yet.
Well-caught, Derisyan. I see you are a fellow student. But why begin with Rubedo, when that is a late step in the process, and not the first? Is Abaddon playing with us to subvert our expectations, or showing us a hidden truth?
All human languages have a word for white (light colours), a word for black (dark colours), and a word for red, all other colours are linguistic and cognitive creations from cultures that needed to further clarify and classify.
Good news: I have successfully stolen an access card for supreme deluxe premium commenting privileges. My new life as an elevator pickpocket is paying off. But I’ve noticed a sickening feeling inside me. My blood – my red, organic, nonmetallic beggar’s blood – is coming back. Soon my heart will be pumping this peasant’s liquid through veins that once carried gold! I despair at the very thought!
I wish Cio could teach me the Red Art; anything to make my blood shine and burn as it once did.
Hrmm… I trust you were able to retain your orichalcum heart? A while back I happened on a golden heart in the stacks of a shade-side tinker’s market stall. Turned out to be just a brass chachki, but it made me wonder.
Indeed I was, for the most part. However, I needed to remove most of the jewelry encrusted on the various valves and axles, so it is in danger of falling apart if I don’t bring it in for maintenance. If I’m crafty about it and play it cool, I might just be able to steal someone else’s heart in my usual elevator. I hear a lot of songs about people having their heart stolen, surely that’s what it means right?
Good to see you back on your feet, Mister Draco. And thank you for informing me of your profession. I’ll know not to use the elevators while on Throne.
Then again, I’d probably avoid them anyway. Stair Thieves and Pusher Assassins are easier to dodge than Elevator Thieves and Elevator Assassins. There’s more room the maneuver.
Or I could just fly or slow fall. But that magic isn’t necessarily what I want to expend willy nilly. Might need them later.
I am baffled no one noticed or mentioned the fact that colors align neatly with one of the oldest and most venerable of fantasies. The Final Fantasy.
White Mages, Black Mages, Red Mages.
I am excited, much like that pure raw potential magic, to see what it will become.
Oldest? Thou art ignorant, my friend, Dragonlance used such a classification several years before the very first FF was created.
And, as was already stated, this colours really go as far back as to alchemy and stages of the Philosopher’s Stone creation. Quite older stuff, really,
Haha, male gaze joke AND fan service for the shipwrights in the same comic – not bad, home-dawg, not bad.
Heh…
You told your mamma I’d get you home
But you didn’t say I was a car >.>
I said it’s alright, You know it’s alright
I guess it’s all in my heart
You’ll be my only, my one and only
Is that the way it should start?
Led Zeppelin, nice choice.
I love this comic.
Small reminder; Fire has no allies
Well yeah, if you take that attitude. I know plenty of magicians who practice animism and/or Contract Magic, who have literally made themselves allies to fire. First thing most such contractors extract from flame is a promise not to burn them. Even arcanists are known to make such pacts, even if pacts aren’t their primary magical study, simply for this benefit.
Me, I prefer to make agreements with airy spirits. Many are content to work with me in return for a song. Literally. I’m told my singing has gotten very good, since beginning my studies.
Without the power of friendship, fire tends to sputter out on its own.
Earth can be used to contain and concentrate the intensity. Air to stir and feed it. Water to keep the users refreshed and protected.
Does anyone else feel that the sexual tension between Cio and Allison is a little shoehorned? Seems nothing more than fan service and it’s taking away from their character
It is a bit over the top and super fanservicey. :/
Cio is a:
*nonhuman
*fanfiction writer
*recovering murderqueen
*try-sexual (yab seemed like she’d try anything)
*part-time criminal/burglar/thief
*small portion of the chaotic black flame
*hiding behind a mask to avoid burning her friends
*some sort of fan-fiction writing author self-insert
*who is known for doing her own self-insert characters
*who was also known for letting her crush on Allison leak all over the pages with those self-inserts
*not even remotely a human and thus totally not required to conform to positive human lesbian norms
*teensy bit outside the typical range of what one might think a purely lesbian human would be attracted to
Oh, did I forget to mention she’s literally an author self-insert so he can write fan-fiction about his own universe INSIDE that universe and use that self-insert’s self-insert to play around and ship characters HE COULD JUST DECLARE ARE TOGETHER because he is a wonderfully strange guy painting a wonderfully strange story for us and instead of getting mad at him for not being a gay woman we might have more fun enjoying the story we’ve been watching unfurl for years?
I cannot agree.
I feel like it ties very nicely into both of their characters. I think we have a lot of foreshadowing that Allison is gay and in deep denial, and a lot of this story is about Allison discovering herself.
On the other hand, Cio has a lot of trouble letting people into her life, and the tension between that and her attraction to Allison (which was foreshadowed *early*) is a big part of her character.
Ok, who else hears [i]Unchained Melody[/i] plying in the background?
This page is awfully horny. You should censor it, asshole. Fuck you.
ah, so the scribe has good taste and invokes the hammer of the gods.
hm, this feels like a dropped ball in a very “man portrays lesbians” way. i’ve been on board with everything else so far but this rly doesn’t pass this gay’s litmus test