It seems to be the same place (or suspiciously similar) to where Jadis gave her first backstory exposition to the younger female Pursuer (6:55-6:59). Judging by the feeling of being high up on mountain tops with thick rolling clouds beside the land, and extremely Tibetan Buddhist-like architecture.
And since they are met there by Solomon’s envoys announcing The Ring of Power Tournament, it’s a safe bet that this is some world in Solomon’s empire, which makes sense a place for Allison and Maya to “hide,” as it wouldn’t really have any demiurge looking over it right now. I’m assuming it’s not Rayuba itself because that feels like it would have been addressed by now, and I get the impression that that entire planet had been settled and civilized, but that’s conjecture.
The fact that it was made years _before_ the Chernobyl accident is one of those facts my brain kind of rejects. “The zone” so _clearly_ has to be inspired by the Chernobyl exclusion zone, but it can’t have been.
Stalker; There was some disaster in early 60’s Russia, which one of my professors endured. I asked them if it was the Cheylabinsk disaster and they said sure with a look of “what do you mean by ‘Thee’?”.
Some vast amount of Strontium poisoned a town to the ground, to the extent that all the children had their teeth pulled out one summers day.
it was adapted from a novel set in an already-failing canadian industrial town that was then devastated by aliens. there have been grisly industrial accidents as long as there has been industry. it seemed also largely concerned with pollution in general, as the central metaphor is essentially “what if there was something big enough out there to carelessly do to us what we carelessly do to other animals?”
I blame the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. games for retroactively making everything chernobyl forever
The lesson is simple. Death is never the end, only another beginning. The shape of life is the shape of the universe, and the shape of the universe is a wheel.
“A man is born gentle and weak; at his death he is hard and stiff. All things, including the grass and trees, are soft and pliable in life; dry and brittle in death. Stiffness is thus a companion of death; flexibility a companion of life. An army that cannot yield will be defeated. A tree that cannot bend will crack in the wind. The hard and stiff will be broken; the soft and supple will prevail.” – Lao-Tzu
Without his actions Maya wouldn’t have hardened herself, so in a sense he took part in the forging. He just didn’t know that he was making the maybe sword.
WAIT DID THIS GUY ALSO TEACH JAGGANOTH HOW TO MAKE HIS SWORD CALLED RUIN ?? OR ARE THEY MADE TO BE ALIKE CREATURES AS A WAY OF GETTING BETTER … RESULTS ??
And why not! The staff, a peasant’s weapon, seems to be quite favored by the little collection of god statues we have here, and Meti was always of the opinion that the plow was far nobler than the sword. Peasants nurture and sustain – much as Maya is doing with Allison now.
The blacksmith has forgotten that strong men, like strong swords, cannot be unyielding.
The sword that is hard to the core is brittle and will shatter when it is called upon.
Same with the man who has walled himself off and done naught but cultivated strength.
Maya though remembers what makes a good sword. A tough exterior on a flexible core. That is a weapon that will not break when the time comes
And rightfully so! “To remain soft at the core — there is no more difficult task in the entire Wheel.” Maya’s whole story is about (…among many other things) the virtues of softness, the value of staying decent, the strength in weakness. She’s a walking paradox and I love her for it.
Well one is in a forge, and the other on top of (what seems to be) a mountain, surely if both were in present day there’d still be a different in color
Not if there was a thunderstorm, for example, or it was a volcano instead. The important thing here is the choice in how to portray both locations the author has made, and we are praising him for it.
Swords are like houses, you cannot rebuild (reforge) upon a faulty foundation. You must strip it to the base fundament and rebuild from the ground up.
She tried once and failed, she could not die as a Peasant, for her foundation was Royalty.
Maya has been broken completely. Her entire life shattered, and now spent 6 years melting, reforging, and beating her soul into a new shape. Building a new house with one purpose.
To be a continuous noodle eating… I’m mean cutting motion, continuous cutting motion.
The gaze is a powerful omen of one’s fortune. Those lords who look down upon others, who sneeringly speak from atop high towers and mighty steeds, always somehow find themselves falling from those same heights, usually with a dagger in their back. Those peasants that likewise lower their eyes to dirt in weak supplication to those above them will forever see nothing but the crude earth until they are buried within it. But those that raise their face toward the castle, toward the crown, toward heaven…they are the ones who will find it. Be they simple worldly everyman or extravagant philosopher king.
So beware, then, looking down. For that is where you will find your death one day, one way or another.
Even the most patient person holds within them a rage capable of destroying the very stars, in this case, she wasn’t very patient, to begin with, I am practically baying for Preem Mana’s blood.
What makes a K6BDs comment section a K6BDs comment section is not the high end, ongoing rhetoric and satire of a well crafted fantasy setting…
… but absence of the angry reactionaries who rage quit last week when their Vogue cover warlord quit it all, suffered bad, and voluntarily traded sex for stuff WITHOUT bothering to see the story through.
I am the Bone of my Sword
Steel is my Body and Fire is my Blood
I have created over a Thousand Blades
Unaware of Loss,
Nor aware of Gain.
Withstood Pain to create Weapons, Waiting for one’s Arrival
I have no Regrets. This is the only Path
My whole life was Unlimited Blade Works
Maya in that last panel looks quite cool. I like where they are physically. Some sort of shrine gods near Jadis place?
It seems to be the same place (or suspiciously similar) to where Jadis gave her first backstory exposition to the younger female Pursuer (6:55-6:59). Judging by the feeling of being high up on mountain tops with thick rolling clouds beside the land, and extremely Tibetan Buddhist-like architecture.
And since they are met there by Solomon’s envoys announcing The Ring of Power Tournament, it’s a safe bet that this is some world in Solomon’s empire, which makes sense a place for Allison and Maya to “hide,” as it wouldn’t really have any demiurge looking over it right now. I’m assuming it’s not Rayuba itself because that feels like it would have been addressed by now, and I get the impression that that entire planet had been settled and civilized, but that’s conjecture.
To me it looks suspiciously like The Forge in the game Loom.
“When a tree grows, it is soft and pliable. But when it’s dry and hard, it dies. Hardness and strength are death’s companions.” – STALKER (1979)
I just watched that movie for the first time last weekend, what a coincidence!
The fact that it was made years _before_ the Chernobyl accident is one of those facts my brain kind of rejects. “The zone” so _clearly_ has to be inspired by the Chernobyl exclusion zone, but it can’t have been.
…Well, the Zone -does- get a bit timey-wimey wibbly-wobbly a-causal sometimes, from my understanding…
Stalker; There was some disaster in early 60’s Russia, which one of my professors endured. I asked them if it was the Cheylabinsk disaster and they said sure with a look of “what do you mean by ‘Thee’?”.
Some vast amount of Strontium poisoned a town to the ground, to the extent that all the children had their teeth pulled out one summers day.
it was adapted from a novel set in an already-failing canadian industrial town that was then devastated by aliens. there have been grisly industrial accidents as long as there has been industry. it seemed also largely concerned with pollution in general, as the central metaphor is essentially “what if there was something big enough out there to carelessly do to us what we carelessly do to other animals?”
I blame the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. games for retroactively making everything chernobyl forever
And dry, hard, dead trees become my table and my chairs and the beams in my house. Behold—The God of Shapes!
The lesson is simple. Death is never the end, only another beginning. The shape of life is the shape of the universe, and the shape of the universe is a wheel.
“A man is born gentle and weak; at his death he is hard and stiff. All things, including the grass and trees, are soft and pliable in life; dry and brittle in death. Stiffness is thus a companion of death; flexibility a companion of life. An army that cannot yield will be defeated. A tree that cannot bend will crack in the wind. The hard and stiff will be broken; the soft and supple will prevail.” – Lao-Tzu
Maya spent those years forging herself.
Rhetorical Whetstone is observant.
Yes. Let it be clear that Manamum did not forge the maybe sword, or mould Maya into a weapon. She forged herself.
Without his actions Maya wouldn’t have hardened herself, so in a sense he took part in the forging. He just didn’t know that he was making the maybe sword.
Only in the sense that one side in a war might forge the swords of the other. A very vague, and not terribly useful sense.
Do you credit the anvil for forging the blade?
10 spears go to battle, 9 are shattered, one returns. did the battle create the proven spear or just reveal it? Brandon Sanderson
oh shutup with your empowerment bullshayt
Every time she asked for her sword, he said ‘Maybe.’
Maybe the real Maybe Sword was the Enemies We Made Along the Way
Mmmmaybe.
LETS GOOOOOOOOOO
Big and juicy, lying ass scammer tosses latest victim a cheap gun after stringing her along for years.
then turns his back on her.
News at 11.
Juices that will, very soon, flow freely. By Aesma!
Manamum makes swords for a living. No one said he had any brains.
I Would Like To See The Next Page Next Week Now Please
Me too. Me too. Me too. Metoo. me2. me2. me2.
Yeah, I think we might be looking at a full spread of dude’s fortress cut in half
Pure hate – that is the REAL sword
WAIT DID THIS GUY ALSO TEACH JAGGANOTH HOW TO MAKE HIS SWORD CALLED RUIN ?? OR ARE THEY MADE TO BE ALIKE CREATURES AS A WAY OF GETTING BETTER … RESULTS ??
MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM
But wait! THERE’S ANOTHER SWORD!!1!
What’s this?! BY AESMA, ‘TIS PREE MAYA WITH A STEEL CHAIR!
Baw the Gawds! She killed him! As Yisun is my witness, he’s broken in half!
The sword she’s holding in the last panel looks like the sword Meti gave her to cut her hair off with.
This sword? It’s only vaguely similar, at best.
Dear Author, I wisheth mightily to know whomst the fucketh be the Donut Headed God in the first panel, please enlighten me.
One believes that is the God of Soul Donuts. Not to be eaten lightly.
What makes a donut, a donut, is what is not there.
It might be the blue haired godded of house and hearth.
Maya looks genuinely pleased at the perceived complement in panel 4
*compliment
i can’t stand that typo when other people do it so i have to address my own mistake
well, compliments to your commitment in correcting your clerical cockups, then
(can’t chuck a chance to chain complementary consonants, can i?)
Peasants are worthless, so they resort to aliteration.
Spoken like a noble, but not like Royalty.
precisely!
And why not! The staff, a peasant’s weapon, seems to be quite favored by the little collection of god statues we have here, and Meti was always of the opinion that the plow was far nobler than the sword. Peasants nurture and sustain – much as Maya is doing with Allison now.
The blacksmith has forgotten that strong men, like strong swords, cannot be unyielding.
The sword that is hard to the core is brittle and will shatter when it is called upon.
Same with the man who has walled himself off and done naught but cultivated strength.
Maya though remembers what makes a good sword. A tough exterior on a flexible core. That is a weapon that will not break when the time comes
And rightfully so! “To remain soft at the core — there is no more difficult task in the entire Wheel.” Maya’s whole story is about (…among many other things) the virtues of softness, the value of staying decent, the strength in weakness. She’s a walking paradox and I love her for it.
“I will tell you precisely what Royalty is. It is a continuous cutting motion.”
Yo the color contrast between past and present is amazing
Well one is in a forge, and the other on top of (what seems to be) a mountain, surely if both were in present day there’d still be a different in color
Not if there was a thunderstorm, for example, or it was a volcano instead. The important thing here is the choice in how to portray both locations the author has made, and we are praising him for it.
Beautiful.
As many predicted, Maya had to sink to a very low place before rising to her greatest height. That is a sad, but all too frequent, necessity.
Now let’s kick some ass!
One cannot leap without first bending one’s knees.
Swords are like houses, you cannot rebuild (reforge) upon a faulty foundation. You must strip it to the base fundament and rebuild from the ground up.
She tried once and failed, she could not die as a Peasant, for her foundation was Royalty.
Maya has been broken completely. Her entire life shattered, and now spent 6 years melting, reforging, and beating her soul into a new shape. Building a new house with one purpose.
To be a continuous noodle eating… I’m mean cutting motion, continuous cutting motion.
Compare this with another who ascended high, but failed ten times to strike a mortal blow…
To be fair to Lord Incubus, Lord Incubus began at the bottom and is now at the top.
It is quite difficult to sink lower than where he began.
Given how the Maybe Sword has been seen to operate, I must wonder: In this flashback… is Lord Mana already dead?
“NANI!?”
Yes.
Silencie! I kill you!
omae wa mo shindeiru
But they were all of them deceived, for another sword was made.
GRAND FUCKING SLAM CRITICS DESTROYED ABBADDON GOAT OF ALL TIME
The gaze is a powerful omen of one’s fortune. Those lords who look down upon others, who sneeringly speak from atop high towers and mighty steeds, always somehow find themselves falling from those same heights, usually with a dagger in their back. Those peasants that likewise lower their eyes to dirt in weak supplication to those above them will forever see nothing but the crude earth until they are buried within it. But those that raise their face toward the castle, toward the crown, toward heaven…they are the ones who will find it. Be they simple worldly everyman or extravagant philosopher king.
So beware, then, looking down. For that is where you will find your death one day, one way or another.
Even the most patient person holds within them a rage capable of destroying the very stars, in this case, she wasn’t very patient, to begin with, I am practically baying for Preem Mana’s blood.
What makes a K6BDs comment section a K6BDs comment section is not the high end, ongoing rhetoric and satire of a well crafted fantasy setting…
… but absence of the angry reactionaries who rage quit last week when their Vogue cover warlord quit it all, suffered bad, and voluntarily traded sex for stuff WITHOUT bothering to see the story through.
I’m sure they are still here, silently seething that they were wrong in their judgement.
I am the Bone of my Sword
Steel is my Body and Fire is my Blood
I have created over a Thousand Blades
Unaware of Loss,
Nor aware of Gain.
Withstood Pain to create Weapons, Waiting for one’s Arrival
I have no Regrets. This is the only Path
My whole life was Unlimited Blade Works
This is an alternate translation of a quote, given to me, from me five hours from now. Interpret it as you may. I would have it no other way.
Spoiler for next week: Maya travels to the past to try and kill her younger self but ends up realizing the beauty of being a noodle vendor.
IF TO SELL FOOOOOD IS MY FATE
THEN I’VE ONE THING TO SAY
DEEP IN THIS STAAAARCH-COVERED HEART
BLOOD SUGAR WILL ALWAYS RISE CLEAR
“Of what, doth Swords dream?” – The Armless Swordsman.
Do Maybe Swords dream of Possible Sheep?
The color contrast between the then and now looks awesome.
Maybe I’m reading too much into it, but the only bit of bright, white color in all the flashback panels here is the blade of the broken sword.
And the slashing motion in which it shattered.
“The moment I swung It, It shattered instantly”
-Breath of the wild’s Link