WHEEL SMASHING LORD 1-18 to 1-19
Chapter: 1
“Secret techniques? Here, girl, I’ll show you a secret way to pick your teeth. Ha ha!”
-Meti ten Ryo to her student Mathangi
Kill Six Billion Demons
BREAKER OF INFINITIES
“Secret techniques? Here, girl, I’ll show you a secret way to pick your teeth. Ha ha!”
-Meti ten Ryo to her student Mathangi
Death simply is. Any answer more complicated than that is useless pondering upon something that will not matter when the time truly comes.
Love her face of pure shock and horror followed by “Oh you sweet summer child. Please gods protect her.”
why do the stone walls in the water canyon have faces? we’re they carved like that by the locals? is it because of the god corpses? why would they affect the canyon walls? maybe it’s a part of the local religion-perhaps they believe that the souls of their dead live on in the land itself, and so they carve them into the shape of their loved one’s face’s? i dont know-perhaps i have thought about that too much. also, i thought that the god corpses existed only in heaven-was i wrong?
I’m pretty sure we are still in Throne currently, likely somewhere around Jadis’ Ziggurat. While it is possible that in those 3 months they traveled elsewhere the environment is drawn very similarly to where they just were in Throne
There is a paradox here. Meti said to the priest: “A dog has more sense than you. He doesn’t think of death at all.” But she also said that “the only way to be a pure master of sword law is to allow one’s body to become absolutely soaked with death”.
…of course, she also said that only idiots strive to master the sword, so I guess it makes sense.
I’m pretty sure we are still in Throne currently, likely somewhere around Jadis’ Ziggurat. While it is possible that in those 3 months they traveled elsewhere the environment is drawn very similarly to where they just were in Throne.
Accidentally posted this in the wrong spot. Endless apologies.
I don’t think it’s a paradox.
I think she is acknowledging she/herself would have been happier living while doing another profession, and she, on some level, regrets her life.
It’s similar to Intra’s statements about only an exceptional fool could imitate his blows and that powerful men are very good at foolishness.
Maybe, maybe not. There’s a difference between being aware of Death and thinking about it. The first means knowing the consequences of killing and remembering that your death is as real as any others, inevitable and pointless to fear. The latter invites only hesitation. Death is the end, and you cease to be. So there is little point in its contemplation, only contemplation and action while alive will derive any benefit, indeed, anything at all.
The fool is soaked in death, but doesn’t care.
There is no paradox. How often do you think of the breath you draw in? The master of sword law gives just as little thought to death.
It is reasonable to conclude that one has become truly soaked with death only when one ceases to think of death.
That’s the question, isn’t it.
I love her expression in response. Allison’s complete lack of concern at the question that can undo the most powerful beings the world has seen. And then Maya- CRUSHED, as undone by the answer as she was by the question. A moment later- is that humor? Because of course, the answer was that simple all along wasn’t it.
As ever, Allison’s greatest power is no thoughts, head empty.
There are two tarot cards with perfect balance – the Fool and the World.
IMHO Maya just shot past Iroh on best supporting fantasy character ever written.
Even with all the answers, her character arc/development is laid out in such simple but profound expressions. She can see that Allison lived by Meti’s tenets far more than Maya had realized.
Allison is perhaps not being entirely honest here. Not so long ago (in comic time, if not in the setting), she asked for a prophecy of when exactly she’d die from an omniscient being and promptly flipped out when she got an answer. And after that she was preoccupied with Cio’s death for… years?
I disagree. The question is about her own death, and not the deaths of others. The question about her dying was just “uh huh well you’re omniscient aren’t you, here’s a stumper” because that’s the single most obvious question to ask, though perhaps not a very good one for determining if somebody’s omniscient or not. In spite of knowing her date of death, though, she… hasn’t freaked out, or really given much visible thought about it at all.
I don’t see anything specifying whose death the question is about. Indeed, Maya’s preoccupation with the topic seems at least partially concerned with the demise of others (those she did not save, those she killed, etc.)
As for Allison, she could have asked about anything, and she chose her own death. That suggests a certain preoccupation with the topic. As you point out, it was also poorly suited for the conversational goal, determining omniscience, again implying that the reason it was chose was less because “it was a stumper” and more because it was on Allison’s mind.
She was affected by Cio’s loss, not her death.
You’ll note that she asked the question about her death but has not dwelled on the answer. Quite the opposite, she continues to be willing to lose everything in order to move forward.
The real mark of enlightenment is the willingness to let go. Over and over again. Lack of attachment. That does not mean lack of feeling, lack of mourning. It doesn’t mean you should not feel loss. Quite the opposite. You have to feel it in order to let go. The real paradox is how to remain open to the world and not shy away from the next blow even though you have lost and lost and lost.
Alison is doing that naturally. She lost her life, which I think a lot of commentators under-estimate. She lost her limbs. She lost her love. She feels them all and lets them go. Bares herself to the reality of the absence and yet carries on.
That is the cognitive dissonance that almost nobody wiil truly surmount in their life.
I don’t know, given the in-universe time scales invoked if we can say that she hasn’t dwelled on it. We can say for sure that she thought enough about it to ask the question.
As for letting go, Allison went on at some length about how she wasn’t letting go at all, couldn’t, wouldn’t. She even chose to forever bear the marks of her trauma, when she could have left them erased. That certainly doesn’t seem like a lack of attachment.
This is true. But recall, when Allison dwelled upon the death of Cio and so many others, she was unable to move forward with her life. Or accomplish anything at all for that matter. And recall how Allison left Jadis. Upon being asked if she had thought this through, Allison replied, “No, I haven’t thought at all.” That was the lesson she needed to learn.
So now when Auntie Maya asks what her what she thinks of death, Allison replies truthfully, without thought or hesitation. Perhaps not so long ago, her reply would have been different. But the Allison of this moment and this time truely gives no thought to death.
Mmm. What a paradox!
You speak as if there are only two choices. In truth, there are infinite choices. Choose a branch of law that isn’t so demanding. Use your law experience as a stepping stone to a completely different career. Decide that your rationale for choosing law in the first place was flawed and find something completely different to do. Maybe start your own business. The possibilities are endless and the answer to your dilemma is to use a continuous cutting motion to strip away the self-imposed limits on your thinking.
Meant this as a reply to 5 Men Beef Sandwiches and Sliced Potatoes.
The red statue is Aesma, isn’t it?
I think so! *heart eyes*
That face she made when The Question that broke her splashed across Alice’s face like water made my month. I cackled on my bean bag chair for minutes. All this tension, all this edge, all this buildup, just to splash like water trying to break a brick. Her face is perfect. Oh my god I love this page.
Hold up, was THAT the question Meti asked that broke her? Is facing mortality such a dire event for the semi-omnipotents?
Consider that the majority of the Demiurges we’ve seen so far have been entirely obsessed with death in some form of another:
Mottom was so terrified of it she created a kingdom that chewed apart worlds to keep herself healthy,
Incubus needs to ‘win’ in order to evade desh
Mammon hid away in his tower,
Jadis is the definition of Ego death,
and Jagganoth seems like he can’t do anything but cause death
Maybe someone who doesn’t think much about it is honestly the solution to the problem
The solution to endless obsessing over death is …
… simply to not think about it.
(Not necessarily intended as any kind of advice for other obsessions not relating to the politics of Throne. If it works for you, great. If it doesn’t, no judgment from me.)
Solomon made himself invincible, but he constantly thinks about death. The death of empire.It’s what shattered him when Jagganoth showed up and proved his protection wasn’t worth a grain of ash.
Aren’t you?
Death is an ending. Very simple yet endlessly variegated. Could you cope with the loss of an eye? Both eyes? The loss of your family? Would you accept the loss of your life, or function, and still do what you need to do?
Death is simple, but it isn’t small.
I think I read somewhere once about how Allison gains a lot of strength through being naïve or ignorant. Instead of it being a burden that weighs her down, it allows her to challenge the status quo that characters constantly are telling her is unbreakable.
As my wife sometimes says, “I’m too stupid to be intimidated.”
I suspect that this is, in fact, quite wise…
I remind you of Aesma the Idiot, who once hefted The Wheel itself so that she might clobber her husband with it.
Such is the nature of ROYALTY.
I mean, don’t all shonen protagonists?
“Actually, I don’t really think about it at all.”
Haha, just wait til you turn 30 Allison…
Maya’s shine is back.
Maya’s shine is back.
What marvels we shall see…
With all the talk of noodles I now realize the answer!
The Flying Spaghetti Monster. Not only are they an expert with noodles, they ARE noodles! Petition them to come to Throne and all will be embraced by their noodly appendages and know love and peace.
I would actually pay to see Maya use the Maybe Sword to pick her teeth.
If you don’t think about it, it’s not a problem.
I FREAKING KNEW IT
It’s the first question she asked Allison, and it’s the question she asks everyone. THAT’S the question that broke her!
So glad someone else pointed this out; this question was literally Maya’s first words to Allison way back in Hell 71.
wait, is that?! queen kali fabulous she kali ababwaaaaa…
I think it’s notable that, ultimately, Allison will live a below average but fine lifetime, per Jadis’s words. Because why try and extend your life in a meaningless gesture? That just makes you another corpse god like the Demiurges. 35 years, ten days, and 693 seconds, about 3 years and 3 months ago. She’s got something like 32 years left of her life. But she doesn’t fret about it too much. Whether that’s because she dies from natural causes or in battle, I really don’t think she obsesses over it like the demiurges do. It’s suffering that causes her the most distress, not death.
And Hansa, who was ROYALTY, knew that he would die, and that it would be his pipe that would cause his death. And so he kept it with him, always, for he very much enjoyed its use, and it served as a reminder of his own inevitable death.
Ringing Bell is observant.
(I wouldn’t have made the connection between Hansa’s pipe, and Allison receiving a pipe from Maya along with her new limbs, without it being pointed out to me. Appreciated!)
The idea of Meti picking her teeth with the Maybe Sword is tremendously amusing to me
How curious to see the little glimmer in Auntie Maya’s gem again in that last panel, much like it did as she prepared to demonstrate the Maybe Sword.
I don’t for a second believe that Maya kept any part of her old Key- she would have thrown it all away in disgust and washed her hands of it. And yet I can’t help but think that it’s more than a coincidence that she has a red forehead gem, and more than a coincidence that it catches the light as it does in such narratively significant moments.
I look at the other Demiurges. Each one has eye colour that matches their Key. Maya is often shown with burning red eyes as well, along with Incubus, and even Allison’s eyes have gone from their nascent pale blue to a stark white. I wonder if the Key suffuses itself into the wielder in such a way that they retain the Key’s power even after it is taken from them.
If this is the case, then I forsee an instance where Allison eventually loses her Key, or perhaps gives it away willingly, only to find that she no longer needs it at all.
I find it ambiguous throughout this chapter as to whether they’re talking about defeating Incubus or Jagganoth. Presumably it’s both, but is the same weapon going to work against both of them?
Maybe.