Kill6BillionDemons II: The Successor's coming will be followed by 108 burning threads

[Eldan]

Wait, what!?

*googles*

Okay, that... doesn't appear to be true. Whew.

Clasically, horse or donkey, yes. NOt so much anymore these days.

[lord_khaine]

Oh gods.. the bias against SD has just reached ridicoulus levels..

We were told this tale is about a female.
The messager does not look like SD.
And its not like we are now told there were an entire monk order who studied Ki Rata.
Solomon David is it the only practitioner.

Its like assuming Maya is involved just because we hear there is a sword master.
Not everything is connected.

[Professor Gnoll]

Oh gods.. the bias against SD has just reached ridicoulus levels..

We were told this tale is about a female.
The messager does not look like SD.
And its not like we are now told there were an entire monk order who studied Ki Rata.
Solomon David is it the only practitioner.

Its like assuming Maya is involved just because we hear there is a sword master.
Not everything is connected.

New Offering
...you were saying?

[Aquillion]

Although that does raise the question of who the "she" is.

(Honestly, I think he was talking about Maya, too, since he's obsessed with her. But that doesn't necessarily mean this story is about her, just a way of illustrating the point.)

[mystic1110]

Although that does raise the question of who the "she" is.

Maybe a story that Maya told Incubus about Solomon regarding why she gave up her seat to him.

[Onyavar]

The Ki Rata chief monk was funny. He obviously didn't know the story of the silver prince Kassardis and the very wise frog .

I am 92.07% convinced now this is a Solomon origin story. Doesn't need to be true though.
Still do not know how it connects with Incubus friend, but he will get there.

[Professor Gnoll]

The Ki Rata chief monk was funny. He obviously didn't know the story of the silver prince Kassardis and the very wise frog .

I am 92.07% convinced now this is a Solomon origin story. Doesn't need to be true though.
Still do not know how it connects with Incubus friend, but he will get there.

The comic is subtitled "Song of Solomon", so I think it's a pretty fair bet.

[lord_khaine]

New Offering
...you were saying?

If you did not listen to me the first time, then i guess i need to repeat myself?
Im saying its extremely silly to assume Solomon David is involved, just because something involves Ki Rata.
And that does not change just because following evidence then makes it more likely that this is SD's background story.

I am 92.07% convinced now this is a Solomon origin story. Doesn't need to be true though.
Still do not know how it connects with Incubus friend, but he will get there.

The friend is likely to be Maya, who also gave up focus on winning to instead just wanting to survive.
Im still not certain why the lesson her should not be "dont teach Ki Rata to people who had their entire life burned down" though.

But it could explain why Solomon only has sons now. If he has daughters in the old life that was burned by a random warlord.
Would like to see how his fight with Yemmod went though.

[Eldan]

Okay, this one made me laugh. I may be a bad person.

Also, I can't hear "cycle of violence" without thinking of this comic:
https://www.smbc-comics.com/comic/a-vicious-cycle

[Iruka]

I like to think that SD made the monks head explode just by flexing his biceps.

[Spacewolf]

Oh I just noticed that the location of the Flashback looks to be from the same location and perspective as the the shot from Solomons palace that shows the Colosseum being constructed. He even mentions the sun being destroyed.

[Aquillion]

I like that Solomon's story is pretty much just "yep, cycles of violence lead to more violence", while Incubus' takeaway from it is "he needs to use more violence!"

Then again, I get the impression that Incubus finds Solomon's goals hilarious; Incubus recognizes that using violence to try and create the perfect state is never going to work, but he doesn't care - he thinks Solomon should just grow up and be a depraved god-king.

Also, this is why Maya pisses him off, since walking away from power over that paradox goes against Incubus' entire philosophy. And, of course, it's amusing that the Demiurge who is most obsessed with victory-for-its-own-sake and hear-the-lamentations-of-their-women is the only one who didn't actually win his key.

[Onyavar]

Oh, look who brought baskets of special apples to a meeting ot the concordance.

The seating of Solomon makes me wonder though, maybe he thinks himself in a position to claim a conditional overlordship.
With Mammon and Mottom so weak, and Jagganoth not there...

[Eldan]

Mammon's looking good, though. More alert. See, I said I was hoping someone would shake him out of his stupor. Though he also seems smaller.

The word Diamond makes ever more sense for Solomon. He's preserving a destroyed past.

Edit: did Mammon just breathe fire at Mottom? There's flames everywhere pointing away from him.

[PraetorDragoon]

For a moment I thought this was a picture of the past, then I remembered that Solomon did call a concordance.

Mammon does not look amused.

[Iruka]

Mammon's looking good, though. More alert. See, I said I was hoping someone would shake him out of his stupor. Though he also seems smaller.

The word Diamond makes ever more sense for Solomon. He's preserving a destroyed past.

Edit: did Mammon just breathe fire at Mottom? There's flames everywhere pointing away from him.

From the still glowing and smoking marks on Mammon, I assume Mottom hit him with a fireball. Makes you alert in even the most boring staff meeting!

[Olinser]

From the still glowing and smoking marks on Mammon, I assume Mottom hit him with a fireball. Makes you alert in even the most boring staff meeting!

Yes, and there is specifically fire coming out of Mottom's wand, so yeah I'm assuming Mottom is the source of the fire.

[Eldan]

From the still glowing and smoking marks on Mammon, I assume Mottom hit him with a fireball. Makes you alert in even the most boring staff meeting!

Doesn't his skin just do that? Those burning gaps at his neck are very regular.

[Iruka]

Doesn't his skin just do that? Those burning gaps at his neck are very regular.

Looks like you are right, he apparently starts to glow when drawing on his power.

[Narkis]

I don't know who threw the fire, but Gog-Agog is having the time of his (hers? its?) life.

[PraetorDragoon]

I do find it amusing that Solomon's dreadlocks moved from the top of his head to his chin.

[Eldan]

I do find it amusing that Solomon's dreadlocks moved from the top of his head to his chin.

Someone suggested in the comments that his hair rotated around his head as he got older, which immediately made me want to see fan art where all his hair is just standing out horizontally from one temple and cheek.

[Onyavar]

When I first looked at the scene this morning, it really looked strangely amicably, despite Mottom and Mammon both present.

I obviously didn't look hard enough. I think that Mammon was breathing the fire towards Mottom (it flows past Solomon in the penultimate panel), bot Mottom somehow shielded herself with her wand - or her servants wouldn't be so unmoved.

There is nothing like a board meeting where two executives are fireballing each other, while to others just let it happen and a fifth one laughs like a derwish. I'm starting to think that Gog-Agog is the trickster "deity" in Throne's "pantheon".

The seating of Solomon makes me wonder though, maybe he thinks himself in a position to claim a conditional overlordship.
With Mammon and Mottom so weak, and Jagganoth not there...

Edit: I was missing many more details: The big "ON" symbol isn't on Solomon's throne, but on the pedestal right behind him, belonging to Ysun's throne. And Mottom isn't sitting. She is perched on her chair, like ready to jump the table.

[slayerx]

I like that Solomon's story is pretty much just "yep, cycles of violence lead to more violence", while Incubus' takeaway from it is "he needs to use more violence!"

Then again, I get the impression that Incubus finds Solomon's goals hilarious; Incubus recognizes that using violence to try and create the perfect state is never going to work, but he doesn't care - he thinks Solomon should just grow up and be a depraved god-king.

Also, this is why Maya pisses him off, since walking away from power over that paradox goes against Incubus' entire philosophy. And, of course, it's amusing that the Demiurge who is most obsessed with victory-for-its-own-sake and hear-the-lamentations-of-their-women is the only one who didn't actually win his key.

Not really. The point of solomon's story is the fact that simply surviving wasn't enough. Solomon SURVIVED Yemmond's attack but he LOST everything that matter to him and ended up watching millions suffer and saw an entire world die... Solomon chose to change that by fighting back, taking back what was lost and rebuilding. However, he' hasn't really won yet. The other Demiurges are still a threat to the "eternal" empire he built and he's unsatisfied with his current way of life. The only way for Solomon to be truly satisfied is to secure the safety of his world and allow himself to live the life he wants to live, and the only way to do that, is to "win"

And we can apply this to Allison as well. She says that all she's wants to do is survive, but what if Mottom found out which universe she came from. Mottom would conquer earth, enslave its people, and the strip the planet bare until there was nothing left. If that were to happen, would Allison really be content with simply "surviving". Incubus is basically telling her that the only way to protect what she cares about and live the way she wants is to beat all of the other demiurges that could threaten her, raise herself to a point where she would be impossible to challenge and "win"

IN the case of Maya, in incubus's eyes, she basically chose survival over victory. As he sees it, all it resulted in is her becoming nothing more than a fat drunk who is simply wandering around and wasting away. She took herself out of the game, she's still lives, but she's got nothing to show for it. It could be the case that he once cared for her and admired her and it pisses him off to see how far she's fallen; a case of severe dissappointment. Though what i think pisses him off is that the other demiurges seem to still give her more respect than they ever afforded him. I imagine there was a difference in how they both earned their godhood; Maya may have won it through blood and battle while Incubus may have just picked up her key after she discarded it which is why the other king's don't feel like he earned his throne

[mystic1110]

I think an important lesson from Incubus is revealed from his phrase "to Rule". As he sees it Ruling is merely the same as walking away - Ruling is just like surviving as well. It is a distraction from winning. Winning, it seems like, means Winning - just like power means power from OOTS. If you are trying to win to Rule, or trying to win to Survive, or to win to Protect you are fooling yourself - winning is its own goal. As such, the way I read it is that for Incubus both Maya and Solomon are "losers" in the sense that their goal was not victory itself. Obviously, he is still trying to use her - but it speaks to his mindset and aim to restart a war and even let the universe be destroyed - he has no goal other than to win over everyone else and if the universe had to die to allow him to win so be it.

[Eldan]

Royalty is a continuous cutting motion, with the operative word, I think, being motion. To work towards victory is to cut, to rule after winning is to stay still.

[Iruka]

Royalty is a continuous cutting motion, with the operative word, I think, being motion. To work towards victory is to cut, to rule after winning is to stay still.

I was about to say that. Continuous is just as important. It never stops.

Divison is the holy concept, not Having Two Separate Things.

[Eldan]

Feels very Conan, in a way. A new conqueror arises in the barbarian steppes, and conquer the weak, settled people. The conqueror rules, and becomes pampered and weak by living in civilization. And so a new conqueror arises in the barbarian steppes...

[mystic1110]

I think it's important to remember that Solomon is not pampered. He is also not stupid - he knows that ruling is not the same as achieving royalty - that's why he so desperately wants to give up ruling. But ruling creates responsibilities that are hard to give up. I think this is where our morality biases come into play - not that there's anything wrong with our morality - we want our rulers to care, to feel beholden to their subjects, but apparently, such laudable virtues are not the way to Royalty.

[Spacewolf]

I wonder if Inc might be meaning that SD isn't able to let go of his past as well, he doesn't have Female children because it reminds him of his first family, he doesn't like tech because that was what destroyed his world, he's not able to leave his throne to do what he wants because he can't find someone suitable.