#can you tell I like K6BD

[wiserodin032402]

Violence in Fiction: what it means to be ‘good’ at violence and why D&D will never deliver

The TTRPG dev writes about TTRPGs. Astounding.

So since the Kobeni post keeps printing notes I decided it’s time to talk about violence.

You know, the good shit. Combat. Rolling initiative. Seeing big damage numbers.

Last big post I talked about how Kobeni from Chainsaw Man is a traditional D&D Fighter. Link Here:

https://www.tumblr.com/wiserodin032402/703497105280483328/kobeni-from-chainsaw-man-is-a-dd-fighter

Now we gotta talk about what it means to be good at violence means. In a fictional way. When I say Kobeni is only good at ‘mundane’ violence, I mean she’s really good at not getting hit and killing singular people okay. She kills people with a completely mundane (as far as we know) knife. Human opponents basically don’t stand a chance against her.

But what does it mean to go beyond mundane violence? Let’s use an example character.

Maya from Kill Six Billion Demons

(Read K6BD here: https://killsixbilliondemons.com/comic/kill-six-billion-demons-chapter-1/)

She’s a former universal conqueror and a student of the greatest swordswoman to ever live. When she properly introduces herself to Allison, the main character, she says this:

She doesn’t introduce herself as a swordswoman, and in fact her own teacher, Meti-ten-Ryo, considers herself a student of the principle art of cutting as well. In her sword manual (in flavor texts around the comic) she states that there is no such thing as a sword, that in order to master the sword you must instead wholly devote yourself to violence in all aspects of your being, and mostly talks about cutting.

Cutting is the sanctioned action.

What does this ability look like in action?

This is Maya’s response to a bullet. She doesn’t dodge. She doesn’t duck. She doesn’t draw a weapon. She looks at the bullet and it is cut.

"Beware the swordsman who carries no blade." -Proverb; KSBD 4-70

But as shown in the art at the start, she does carry a blade. A broken one. But what does it look like when she uses it? What does the art of cutting look like?

It looks like this:

Maya does not fight her opponent here, 6 Juggernaut Star, an incredibly powerful angel. No, she simply slays their form in a single strike with some amount of effort. Juggernaut Star enacts violence upon others, but Maya lives and breathes violence as an art form.

There are many characters like this in Kill Six Billion Demons, one of the strongest being

Solomon David

He’s more aligned to the idea of the D&D monk than anything else, but it’s still good to go over because, well...he’s very fucking good at violence.

Beware the splash zone, gore warning below.

He kills and entire arena of contestants in under a second. Not using any magical powers from his Key of Kings. But with a special breathing technique and years of practicing the rare martial art of Ki Rata.

All of this is also damn near impossible to mechanically translate to a tabletop role-playing game if you care about things like ‘balance’ or ‘encounter structures’ like D&D does.

Fundamentally, your D&D Fighter, who only does combat, cannot be good enough at combat to take that niche for themselves.

If they could, a healthy chunk their abilities would revolve around instantly killing amounts of opposition, just like how Rogues can rig their skill checks to be so high you shouldn’t even bother, and Spellcasters can pull out a spell to instantly solve situations (including combat sometimes). If these other two thirds of the game can be solved like this, then Fighter, the class that fights, and only fights, should be instantly resolving combat.

In fiction, characters who are transcendent in combat don’t fight their opponents, they deal with them instantly unless their opponent is on the same level as them or above them.

But this isn’t possible in D&D, as it would either need to quantify this ability as a resource, or would need to necessitate dealing an excess of damage. There’s also the third issue: that the rest of the game isn’t developed enough for one class to make Combat the thing they solve reliably and instantly.

Since the combat is the only developed part of the game, it remains the only reliable challenge, so all classes have to have a way to participate in combat. Fundamentally, you can’t have a class that solves combat directly, because then the game is boring.

Which leaves D&D’s combat (outside of spells) as modeling only basic weapon attacks, from the start of the game to the end of the game. Even in 3.5 and Pathfinder with their combat maneuver system, it requires too many player resources to utilize what are ultimately situational and mundane tricks (even if they are fun to do).

Finally, all editions have a strange fixation with the grittiness of unarmed combat. No one knows how to punch anyone unless they’re a Monk or spend excessive amounts of character resources to attain this legendary ability. A Fighter, someone who trains only to kill other people day in and day out, to the detriment of all other skills, is worthless without a weapon. The mere act of striking another human with a closed fist is simply alien to them.

Since a Fighter cannot be dominant at violence, cannot transcend their need for a weapon, and cannot attain any form of enlightenment from their constant training for violence, they are at level 20 how they started at level 1:

A weak-willed fool who clings excessively to a worthless length of metal

[nateconnolly]

I made a Patreon lol.

Here's the free sample post:

THE CREATION MYTH OF KILL 6 BILLION DEMONS

INTRODUCTION

I love fantasy religions. I love it when fictional humans try to understand worlds like Brandon Sanderson’s Cosmere and Tolkein’s Middle Earth through a religious lens—especially because in those books and in many others, the fantasy religions are somewhat true, and somewhat false. It’s really fun to look at a fictional universe through the eyes of a character who might not see things objectively. Religion usually plays a role in that. But, if I’m being honest, a lot of fantasy religions are just Christianity wearing a fun hat. Don’t get me wrong, I am fascinated by Chrisitianity, and I really enjoy a lot of fantasy versions of Christianity. But it’s a great special treat when a fantasy story goes the extra mile and portrays another concept of the divine. That’s one of many reasons that I love the webcomic Kill 6 Billion Demons. The webcomic’s fictional religion Atru has parallels to Taoism, Gnosticism, Advaita Vedanta, theothanatology, Biblical divine nomenclature, the list goes on. I just threw a lot of big scary words at you, but I promise, this is a beginner level essay. I’ll break everything down into bite-sized pieces. I just wanted to list out some of K6BD’s religious influences to show that they are complicated, and diverse.

This is specifically a essay about the creation narratives. K6BD is an amazing comic—later on, it tackles questions about time, free will, and optimistic nihilism, but I won’t dig into that stuff here. Those things would require their own essays. Here, I’m going to try to explain how the seven-part world came to be. More specifically, I’ll examine the stories that White Chain, Cio, Michael, and the old devil’s tale tell us; then I’ll look at fictional holy texts found in the Concordance.

I’ll also compare and contrast with a lot of real world religion and philosophy. I want to be clear that the creator Abaddon and I have never spoken. I don’t know where he got most of his inspiration. I’m not revealing any information that wasn’t already available, I’m just compiling it and offering my own thoughts. Unless I specifically quote Abaddon, assume that I’m not even talking about his inspirations. I’m drawing parallels because it’s fun, even though it probably won’t give us new insight into how the text was created.

I promise I’m not trying to convert you! I genuinely don’t want to make other people believe the religion that I believe—or any religion at all. I’m just trying to show you how understanding some real world religious and philosophical concepts can deepen your appreciation of K6BD. Obviously, there will be tons of spoilers, so go read the webcomic if you haven’t already. It’s absolutely genius.

Lastly, I want to say I will discuss suicide and murder.

Ok, let’s get started.

PART ONE: THE FIRST AND GREATEST DIVISION

Let There Be No Genesis

White Chain begins the history of the universe with the words, “Let there be no Genesis,” closely echoing the in-universe fictional Psalm I. “For indeed, there was [no Genesis]. God has always existed and has never existed.” As White Chain tells her story, we are shown the god YISUN. This figure is sometimes described with it/its or she/her pronouns, but for the sake of simplicity, I’m going to follow the example of the fictional Psalm I, and use he/him. I might call him “YISUN” or “God” with a capital G depending on the context.

YISUN was eternal, and the “undisputed master of the entire omniverse.” He predates everything else, and without him, nothing would exist.

YISUN has at least twelve bodies, probably more. Some are smiling, some look mad; some resemble insects or animals; most hold weapons; and all are different colors. The central white body has four arms. Abaddon has said that YISUN’s appearance is directly inspired by the Hindu god Vishvarupa.  Hindu gods are frequently depicted with multiple body parts, an artistic tradition that Doris Srinivasan calls “the multiplicity convention.” She explains some of the religious and artistic reasons that many Indian gods have multiple body parts in her book “Many Heads, Arms, and Eyes: Origin, Meaning, and Form of Multiplicity in Indian Art.” The tradition of Hinduism is long, and diverse, so the multiple limbs in one text can mean something very different from the multiple limbs elsewhere. Srinivasan closely examines a vast expanse of Indian history, and I don’t have time to present all her ideas. I would like to specifically focus on the interpretation that multiple limbs represent the manifestations of a singular godhead.

Srinivasan writes that “Multiple versions of a myth are facilitated by the idea that there exists multiple aspects or manifestations of a godhead.” Think of the difference between Greek and Hindu goddesses. Bruno Snell suggests “that these four women signalize the four aspects of all womanhood,” but Srinivasan qualifies his interpretation. The Olympian women “are not multiple forms of [one] Divine Woman, as is the case in Hinduism.” Artemis and Athena are different people who are both women, plural. Parvati, Sati, and Uma together are Woman, singular. Zeus, Demeter, and Poseidon are gods, plural. Shiva, Vishnu, and Krishna are God, singular. That’s not how all Hindus see things, but it is one Hindu perspective that I find especially comparable to K6BD.

Similarly, the multiple bodies are only manifestations of a single God: YISUN. All of his bodies are a single person. In Hinduism, the plurality of the divine can be seen as empowering and liberating. Multiple body parts signify that the god is a well-rounded entity. But Abaddon makes it look like a curse. He turns the artistic convention around. Using the same symbolism and metaphysics, he tells a radically different story. As White Chain says, “Being was only circular.” “YISUN had no equal… It was a wretched life, without meaning or perception. Imagine infinite stories to tell… and nobody to tell them to.” Perfection is lonely. At this point, YISUN is the only thing that exists, and that can’t be fun. All those arms and heads cannot satisfy YISUN’s need for companionship. It’s fascinating to me that when White Chain says YISUN had no one to whom it could tell its stories, Abaddon chose to illustrate multiple heads right next to each other. Even if those heads told each other stories, the speaker and the listener would still be the same person. Dissatisfaction with isolation is why YISUN created the world.

Although not all Hindus follow the school of Advaita Vedanta, in this case, I think it will be helpful to compare and contrast with Advaita. As Ram Shanker Misra writes in “The Integral Advaitism of Sri Aurobindo,” “Brahman [ is] perfect, absolute, infinite, need[s] nothing, [and] desir[es] nothing…” Brahman is full of all perfections. And to say that Brahman has some purpose in creating the world will mean that [Brahman] wants to attain through the process of creation something which it has not. And that is impossible.”

But that’s exactly why YISUN created this world. He wants to gain something that he does not have: companionship.The universe is God’s escape from himself. There was no Genesis, but there was “the first and greatest division: division of self”: “God committed holy suicide.”

2. The Divine Suicide

White Chain’s story is similar to Friedrich Nietzsche’s famous claim that “God is dead,” but Nietzsche did not mean God was a real entity that had literally died. He meant that intellectually, it was impossible to continue believing in God, and that all intellectual achievements founded on belief in Him had to be abandoned. Nietzsche’s claim is a famous example of a philosophical school of thought called death of God theology, also called “theothanatology,” which means “the study of God’s death” in Greek.

“Death” can mean a lot of different things in this context. Sometimes it’s metaphorical, sometimes it’s literal, and usually, it’s a very confusing mixture of both.

Nietzsche proposed the death of God as a social claim about humans. He’s talking about what we can believe, what we should do, and what we need to accept. God never really existed, but as religion loses followers and influence, even the idea of God has begun to “die” because it no longer has power over the real world.

“Death” can also mean God exists, but in a way radically different from what people usually mean when they say “God.” The Rabbi and philosopher Richard L. Rubenstein thought God exists as a “ground of being,” but not as a supernatural entity that made a covenant with Abraham. Rubenstein proposed the death of God as an intellectual change in what humans think the word “God” means.

And, finally, “death” can just literally mean “death.” The Protestant theologian Thomas J.J. Altizer wrote “we shall understand the death of God as an historical event: God has died in our time, in

our history, in our existence.” This isn’t a social claim about humans—it’s a metaphysical claim about God.

Death of God theologians usually mean more than one thing when they say God is dead. Nietzsche wasn’t just trying to convince Christians to become atheists; he was also trying to convince many atheists that they disbelieved in God in the wrong way. Altizer had radical thoughts about what human beings are able to believe.

White Chain means that God is dead in the literal sense. She is proposing a metaphysical belief that God, as a historical figure, chose to actually kill himself. White Chain is not rejecting or critiquing religion—she’s asserting that her religion, in which God has died, is fact.

You can see slight parallels to Nietzsche, Rubenstein, Altizer, Hegel, Zizek, and Blake in White Chain’s version of the fictional religion Atru. But there is no better comparison than the king of sad philosophers Philipp Mainlander.

Mainlander was an atheist—but not in the sense that people usually mean when they say “atheist.” Mainlander believed that there was a God at some time, but that time is now over. There isn’t a God anymore. Mainlander is pretty unique among death of God theologians because he explicitly describes God’s death as a suicide. Whittaker explains that Mainlander thought “[a]ll things have their origin in what may be called… the ‘will’ of the absolute being… to annihilate itself.” Essentially, the cause of the universe is God’s suicidal desires.

God was a “real unity,” but his death caused a “collective unity”—that’s the universe where we live now. God had been a total and undivided One, but now the universe is made of distinct parts. God cut himself apart into the pieces of the universe. God created the world by becoming it, and he became the world by dying.

Mainlander said “the knowledge that life is worthless is the flower of all human knowledge.” He thought suicide was desirable, and ultimately, he put his money where his mouth was. The biggest difference between Mainlander and White Chain is that she doesn’t seem to think ordinary people such as herself should follow God’s suicidal example. Even beyond the views of a specific character, the story of Kill 6 Billion Demons reads as an affirmation of life’s beauty and value.

But the webcomic clearly argues that making a better world is a bloody project. So it should come as no surprise that making the world itself involved bloodshed. First and foremost, the blood of God. What’s so interesting to me is that both White Chain and Mainlander equate God’s suicide to the creation of the world. Our life comes from God’s death. Creation and destruction aren’t opposites—they’re different ways of looking at the same process. At the end of Book 2, Allison destroys Mottom’s evil tree and a lot of her palace—but this destruction is also part of the creation of a more just and free world.

So, what did God’s destruction create? What came after YISUN?

3. The Duality of Un and Yis

The destruction of the total unity creates duality. I know that’s a little confusing because YISUN had many faces, but remember that behind all of those faces was one God, and only one. Not anymore. “From division was birthed duality. White Un, Lord of empty and still places, master of all that is not. Black Yis, infinite mother of the rampant flame. Master of all that is''

I cannot avoid comparing the White and Black gods to the Yin and Yang—a spinning black and white symbol usually associated with the religion Taoism. Yin and Yang represent a cosmic duality. Yin is associated with femininity, darkness, passivity, and even numbers, among other things. Yang is associated with masculinity, light, activity, and odd numbers, among other things. Mainstream Taoist philosophy asserts that the universe can be understood through duality. So, why are these pairs important? And why do things get paired together in the first place?

As is written in the foundational Taoist text the Tao Te Ching, “Being and non-being create each other. Difficult and easy support each other. Long and short define each other. High and low depend on each other. Before and after follow each other.” What’s so interesting about the pairs is they “create,” “support,” “define,” and “depend on” each other. Black can’t exist without white, and white cannot exist without black.

As the Encyclopedia of Philosophy puts it, “...yinyang is emblematic of valuational equality rooted in the unified, dynamic, and harmonized structure of the cosmos. As such, it has served as a heuristic mechanism for formulating a coherent view of the world…” Essentially, neither of these opposites are “dominant” or “truer.” Choosing one side won’t help you understand the universe because the universe is their partnership. Their equality gives “structure to the cosmos.” That structure is order, not chaos, but it is differentiated. There are two different things: Yin and Yang. They contradict each other, but at the same time, they make the universe. Yin and Yang are a productive paradox.

I’d like to return to the notion that “being and non-being create each other.” At this stage of creation in K6BD, UN and YIS could not exist without each other. Their very existence is the fact that they are not a unity. If there was only one of them, then there wouldn’t have been a division—and they are nothing more than the product of division. Just like how being and non-being create each other, the Master of All That Is and the Master of All That Is Not create each other. YISUN was characterized by his totality—he was the total sum of the omniverse, there was nothing else. After the division, Un and Yis experience otherness. The first otherness in the omniverse. It’s difficult for them to find balance—in fact, they immediately went to war for seven years. At the end of their seven-year war, Un and Yis made love for seven days.

I want to be very clear that this is not a depiction of actual Taoism. Yin and Yang are not gods with faces and minds. Notably, the Tao Te Ching asserts that yin and yang are “older than God.” so make of that what you will. But I think Taoism is thematically relevant to this era. Two opposites have to come into balance with each other. The whole universe is a duality of interconnected forces.

K6BD repeatedly emphasizes the need for community. As Allison says at the end of King of Swords, “I couldn’t have done this without any of you… We make mistakes. We learn from each other. We all still have so much to learn. Once I saw that as a weakness, now I’m certain it’s not. Someone who lives still thinking like that… struggling to do everything themselves… I can’t help but think how alone they must be.”

YISUN had to do everything all by himself, and we saw that Allison was right—isolation was a struggle, even for God. But the struggle is over, and in its place is duality. Partnership. The first community.

These are the first four parts of a fourteen-part critical essay. You can read the rest here.

Bibliography is on the free Patreon post.

[fefeman]

I like how K6BD show without telling that Incubus is a lesser swordsman compared to Maya.

For example, Incubus has to visualize (or perhaps do it very fast?) the motion to cut Cio...

But while a bullet might be weaker than Cio (Altho speed is a factor, and the bullet is likely faster), Maya can cut it with just a thought.

The way I see it, It's meant to show where Incubus is still dependent on the cutting process (thinking about how you do it, what's the action, the footwork.) Maya just does it.

Also, how Incubus begs for a sword during the fight against Jagganoth, while Maya seemingly can fight without it (her sword doesn't even have a blade). To me, Incubus is dependent on the tool as well.

Point is, I'd bet a lot after their fight when Maya saved Alyson, Incubus ran away with his tail between his legs.

[that-house]

Ran the first proper Field of White Flowers playtest the other day.

I stuck them in the Kill Six Billion Demons universe, because i love that setting and its general aesthetics and power level are perfect matches for FoWF (tbh K6BD was a significant inspiration for FoWF)

They were mercenaries hired by the Repossessions Guild to break into the house of a mob boss who’d gone missing and take everything that wasn’t nailed down.

TLDR: it was fun

in depth breakdown of what happened below the cut because i don't wanna nuke everyone's dash <3

For those with no context: Field of White Flowers is a high fantasy high power tabletop roleplaying game system geared towards huge dramatic anime fight scenes, wuxia bullshit, and feats of tremendous heroism and villainy. It draws inspiration from the webcomic Kill Six Billion Demons, fighting games, a vast slew of other roleplaying game systems, and the time-honored video gaming tradition of having a climactic duel in a field of white flowers.

The big thing I was worried about going into the playtest was just that it wouldn’t be fun. I’d had a lot of fun designing it and talking about it, but until you play the game properly it’s impossible to tell whether the game is actually fun.

Like, take Lancer. I love Lancer, I love the design philosophy behind it, I love theorycrafting builds for Lancer. Actually playing through a Lancer combat is like getting a cavity filled without anesthetic. How do 4 rounds with 4 players and no roleplay take 6 hours? We will never know

Our cast, in order of introduction:

Abzu, Newborn God: a young ocean god seeking to prove himself to his brethren. flavorwise he was a waterbender, mechanically he was a fairly supportive debuff engine focusing on lowering enemies’ stats with Chill. Attempts to get Abzu's player to join tumblr have been unsuccessful thus far.

Alizoba, King of Miscellany: sapient pile of trash looking for more stuff to add to themself. had a build based around Baiting enemies into bad moves and following up with huge combos. Alizoba was played by @cyrus-swag.

Ophidia, Serpent Queen of Lead: cowgirl and gun witch, mostly just here to kill people and get money. build revolved (haha gun pun) around throwing flashbangs, vanishing, and reappearing somewhere else with a huge gun. Ophidia was played by @fearlesscomfort.

Sixgill Griseus, The Bartender No One Fucks With: shark man who is a bartender/bouncer/chef/waiter/etc at his bar. magically-enhanced death glare can intimidate inanimate objects and shut down people's nervous systems. Sixgill was played by @historically-innaccurate-dialga.

The events of the session:

Abzu immediately murders someone for polluting a canal

gradually all met up and made their way to the house they were going to rob

encountered two devils, the tiny chainsaw-wielding Ozzy and the colossal Scunge who wielded a machete and a harmonica, guarding the house

Scunge was tackled clean through the door of the house and pinned down by Sixgill until he simply keeled over dead from the force of the bartender's stare

Ozzy mauled Abzu and Ophidia, and was about to coup de grace the latter when Alizoba summoned a building on top of him

Ozzy and Scunge served as a test of the Power Couple mechanic, in which two combatants are represented by a single statblock, one of which dies and changes the statblock when they collectively reach half HP

Inside the house, they encountered a vast horde of living dead who had been employed as meth cooks and house guards. They fought them off for a while before Ophidia finished off the last forty or so by briefly stopping time and lining up a headshot on each one

The zombies were an example of the horde mechanic for representing a TON of enemies with one statblock and a few minions. They worked great

Next was a hall of huge swinging blades, because i wanted to include a few simple skill challenges.

Sixgill just used his enhanced senses to walk through the hall, only getting barely clipped by the last one.

Abzu attempted to freeze the mechanisms, but they exerted too much force and shattered the ice.

Ophidia solved the "there are several thousand pounds of high velocity metal in front of us" with her own several hundred pounds of high velocity metal (she shot the blades with her minigun until they broke)

The next room was a treasure room, with tons of weapons in glass cases. Sixgill broke one of the cases to get a harpoon, causing the rest of the weapons to drop through the floor and poison gas to pour into the room

Abzu waited out the poison in a bubble, while Alizoba summoned a fridge to hide in. Sixgill stared the fucking poison down and the very air said "you know what fuck that I'm not getting paid enough." Ophidia tried to fire off enough guns to replace the air near her with gunsmoke, which went badly

the final thing we had time for in this session (we're going to finish it another day) was a room with an enchanted idol in the middle, which compelled everyone who saw it to want it.

Ophidia burned a fifth of her HP to teleport over to it instantly and take it before anyone else could, and we ended the session as they walked into the next room, which contained a devil named BIG BOY (all caps)

The good stuff:

combat flows quickly from player to player, turns are short but impactful. it's not a tactical wargame, there's no grid or elaborate line of sight rules, but decisions about when to bring up damaged allies and whether or not to take short term disadvantages for long term benefit mattered

even though the system has a lot of room for optimization and certain characters were definitely stronger than others, no one felt useless even with bad rolls

the general Math of the system worked out pretty well. people were critting about as often as I wanted them to be, the HP amount for the players felt right

people had fun (the most important thing)

other important thing: it filled a niche that no other system i've played has filled, and did it well. the experience might have been different if we'd used another system, but it would not have been enriched by the change. Field of White Flowers just. fundamentally. works.

The stuff that needs improvement:

in retrospect it should have been obvious that, given that at its core the game is designed to be roughly balanced (especially at lower levels), making enemies that are on even footing with the players would make the combat REALLY fucking difficult. That was a silly on my part <3 the first encounter was not meant to be that hard. I halved the HP of the second encounter and it was much more reasonable

the mental overhead of certain builds is a little too high. the character sheet handles a lot of things for the players, but some builds have numbers that fluctuate frequently in combat

debuffs didn't quite feel impactful enough on enemies. main issue is that many of the durations are too short, leading to a lot of debuffs just sort of feeling bad when you use your whole turn to apply them, while other debuffs are just VERY VERY VERY good (looking at you Shock)

current out of combat resolution system is very bare-bones (skill checks are roll a few dice against a DC), and either a sliding scale of success or a push mechanic would likely augment it

nerfed Knife Juggler because holy fuck it was so OP for how easy it is to obtain

The nice thing about game design is you can make a system you want to play. Field of White Flowers ticks soooo many of my boxes, and it proved to be pretty easy to pick up, fun to play, and with enough depth of content to keep people talking about it for a good while after the session.

thanks for reading, and always remember: Pariah Stance allows you to tick down the countdown on Forbidden Technique faster

[annelidist]

Ask thingy #16, #8 and #20 for K6BD. Please.

8. the character with the greatest wasted/unexplored potential

now. i know oscar gets a lot of screen time for a side character. i know he's a prominent figure in a major arc. but i'm telling you now: it's not enough. i need that awful cunt FRONT AND CENTER. i need an oscar spinoff comic STAT

also i would really like to see more of nyave but i don't know if there'll be time for that in the remaining book u_u

16. a scene/moment that makes me really emotional every single time

vigilant gaze's speech to white chain!! it's been my favourite moment in the comic since before my egg cracked, so as you can imagine i haven't got less fond of it over time. it still makes me tear up sometimes

for a very different definition of "emotional", the scene where cio says "here's some advice from an older woman" and then lights a match on the surface of her tongue

20. fics/fanart I'd love to see

this is circling back around to my first answer a bit but there should be 500 fics on ao3 about oscar and his goons doing the devil equivalent of guy ritchie movies

[sev-wildfang]

can i ask wut about parkinson-morgan's writing u dislike/ find wanting? (genuinely interested not tryn to burn u)

for referanc i have not read lancer have read icon nd have read sum of k6bd but stopped when white chain (tgrl angel) got a body bc i was sorely disappointed by that choice nd the choice of body he gave her(no dick imo convent atractiv)

it's the showmanship to wow people who dont read books, dont research topics, and dont engage with philosophies or religious practices beyond patting each other on the back on imageboards, that does it for me. it comes across as intellectual but if you dig even an inch deep, youre not finding anything substantial, youre finding pop culture impressions of what buddhism and hinduism are, a metatron ripped not from biblical studies but from his dark materials, and a sour undertone of unreflected western Tales of Great Men.

once you notice this you can't unsee it: the Great Man (or great woman, like Allison) steadily improves himself through facing adversity to perfect himself more and more, through sheer willpower. id hesitate to call it a "grindset" but it is a kind of philosophy birthed, cradled, and reared by western capitalism. it disgusts me, politically. hes not doing it on purpose, which may be even worse, that he doesnt put these convictions into his work on purpose. in fact if he was, he wouldnt contradict himself about his own work! he might genuinely not be aware of what his own magnum opus actually says! (and dresses it up in Orientalist drapery)

and finally, to talk about the tokenism of White Chain you brought up: seeing her immediately turned into a beautiful black cis woman and discarded from the plot after providing another stepping stone for the Randian protagonist is not a great look. it makes sense in the context of what the plot says (its not a story of unpredictable twists and turns) but in the end that whole sequence does culminate in the lower-class queer woman and the black girl being sacrificed to further the white woman's hero journey. theyre her deadwife motivations for the final act. theyre the Casca to her Guts. unoriginality proliferated, and not even in an interesting way.

it's even funnier because he did acknowledge that on twitter, if only to scream "no this isnt what im doing"; a writer worth my respect either writes their text to make such accusations baseless, or sticks to their guns until a twist absolves them. flailing about telling readers that they shouldnt engage with the plot at face value is spineless to me. thats all i have to say on that.

[spikedru]

If you like webcomics like K6BD, Tiger Tiger, and Devil's Candy, I've got a few recommendations! Never Satisfied by Taylor Robin, and Unsounded by Ashley Cope, and Sister Claire by Elena Yamino and Ash are three of my favorites! Just got my copy of Tiger Tiger in the mail, so I'm glad to hear you like the comic too! :D

oh ive been a fan of never satisfied for soo long ! i look forward to when/if it finishes its hiatus. ive often thought about what my magic's color and familiar would be haha

ill look into the other two! always like getting into new webcomics, its inspiring to see how dedicated people can be to telling their stories. and yesss another tiger tiger fan. im in love with ludovica.... baby get a man like me ill help you study all the sea sponges you want

[oswednesday]

i had like a continuation of this dream last night like i was called away from planewalking cause like, ive never read percy jackson stuff tho im going to but like people like me had a Parent Concept that was separate from like a birth parent (i had seen my mom in the previous dream she was at a fancy restaurant plane and didnt reserve me a seat which is why i ended up getting trapped because i had to breech into an unprotected zone for a bite to eat) and birth family (thats not how those books work but similar in an archetypal head of the family governs abilities) but the head of the house was dying so i shuffled to a plane version of my grandparents on my dads side like house/memories of gathering and got all my stuff from there that was lost into like several boxes some stuff even from dreams before tucking over to the castle

it was like this massive soulborne-y level kind of castle all bloodred-black stone wide marble walk ways with stairs floors looking down into other floors, things lined with like liquid light, i was given the position of archetypal head as the one was dying and i agreed to it, so one of the court knights (the knights were all worm creatures to construct knight bodies half out of energy half out of material objects in a very k6bd sorta way) so the head knight beheaded the dying ruler and something had made me laugh, like some banter someone was quietly engaging me with and the knight was like look upon your new monarch who laughs at the passing age, and that set the tone for the whole thing

there was like court politics amongst the worms going on (sometimes theyd be out of their knight uniform and just wiggle about the castle, before they would be punished for such nudity but i didnt mind) i wanted a handful of worms to be able to talk amongst themselves without like the pressure of the head worm there because there Was something up with the passing of the old ruler and some kinda social court politics that was heating up i wasnt really looped into but i knew they needed to talk about stuff so i asked the head worm to accompany me and i got stuck in a mini plane which i haaaaaaaaaated like everything small and i cant see everything and im all squished down and panicking so i started to knock the walls of the planes over and got out and the head worm was like next time that happens just ask and ill take you anywhere <-something of that effect lead to a worm kiss, and i was like great this is perfect i can always distract this worm with my body while the others secure their positions in the coming coup or whatever was going on

so there was like an over view of the passing of time when ever i needed to occupy the head worm we'd go have a scandalous knight/monarch human?/worm sex moment and id like give a thumbs up and okay to whatever group of worms that needed a moment for worm activities, i woke up after heading back to bed telling a lower rank worm that they can go worm play for a bit

that reminded me of my dream i was like some kinda Planewalker but it was very backroomsy level kinda deal and in one part like slenderman 8 pages kept ramming into me crazy style and he'd knock me into like a yume nikki style hell space id get out and it was in like a restaurant world in one i enjoyed some jellyfish rice and i was getting ready to keep going when some fucking guy catches me and theres a whole a plot i was avoiding about needing to be knocked up for some prophecy, before the guy could take the pre-destined amount of nuts to do that a servant on the plane (he was like some kind of prince) showed me to a servant's quarters door which i could use to get out and return to the planes and i crossed through the door and woke up

[missfinefeather]

MissFinefeather

Did I miss any pages there?

failbird105

From my brief check, nope.At least, there does not seem to be a page 4

or, page 2-4 rather.

Yep, you're fine. Far as I can tell, page 2-4 through 2-22 don't exist

MissFinefeather

Weird...

Solarn

The early part of the comic is numbered a bit weirdly, because it's all been redone. Originally there were a few superfluous pages of only text (by the way, have you been reading the text posts under the comic, they're usually in-universe works and full of worldbuilding) and a lot of filler art by Abaddon, but they later went back and redrew the first few chapters, and also got rid of the unnecessary stuff.

Solidad

Text posts under the comic are at least 50% of the greatness of K6BD(edited)

MissFinefeather

Oh wow! So they originally Homestucked it]

Solidad

Also, Miss

you haven't commented on any of the text postsdid you read them ?

MissFinefeather

...I didn't even see any text posts

Solidad

under the comics

scroll down a bita lot of pages have text under them

it's in universe texts

MissFinefeather

...that little blurb there?

Solidad

Yup

some are way longer

like pages long

MissFinefeather

Do you want me to go back?

Solidad

YesYou'll be very lost otherwise with some other bits of text and lore

Solarn

Early on, I think the first chapter has only one, the second chapter has more, but they're short and sometimes author comments instead of in-universe stuff (and one case of inserting reader comments into in-universe stuff), but then afterwards it's all worldbuilding, all the time.

MissFinefeather

...Maybe I'll just end it here and just, start out going through all those

Solidad

Sounds good

Nora (fae/faer; thon/thons)

there are a bunch of long ones too actually

and they were kind of a pain to read 4 me

Solidad

Some are very long, yes

MissFinefeather

Sounds like it's going to be a pain for me to read ^^; but let's hope not

Solidad

That's what I was talking about in general with "Mythical fucking poetry"

MissFinefeather

I hope they aren't walls of text ^^; my probably dyslexia hates those

Solidad

...some are

MissFinefeather

That's what I was afraid of >.<;

Solarn

Okay, in Chapter 1, the title page, page 5 and page 11 have in-universe text underneath, pages 9 and 10 have reader comments reworked into in-universe text (that's pretty long), 16 has a short story, and the rest are author comments.

MissFinefeather

Again, let's tackle that next week

Nora (fae/faer; thon/thons)

there are some walls of text, and I feel ya, my ADHD screamed at these

MissFinefeather

I probably have ADHD too.

Probably... I might have that instead of Dyslexia. I don't know, no one out here knows how to diagnose this shit xD

Nora (fae/faer; thon/thons)

lmao

well I self-dx'd

MissFinefeather

I honestly think I have both but... yeah again, not a doctor

Nora (fae/faer; thon/thons)

they're comorbid, so possibly

[comicteaparty]

April 10th-April 16th, 2019 Reader Favorites Archive

The archive for the Reader Favorites chat that occurred from April 10th, 2019 to April 16th, 2019.  The chat focused on the following question:

From any webcomic, what background took your breath away?  Tell us how you felt seeing it!

RebelVampire

Whenever I think of backgrounds in webcomics, the first one that always comes to mind is this top panel from Rising Sand: https://risingsand.glass/post/151384269639/rs033-effective-advertisement-is-a-prized-skill-in This background astounds me just because of the sheer amount of detail working on so many levels. Like you've got culture world-building with the various banner symbols and such. You've got a slew of detail that really paint the mood of the scene. Then there's also these tons of details like the cracked architecture that tell a story about the age of the place without even needing to actually say it in words. This is not to mention the off kilter angle, composition, and lighting all work beautifully together to create scale and atmosphere. Just 10/10, would visit this background.

khkddn

wow that's an impressive page. The off kilter angle does a lot for it

khkddn

https://m.tapas.io/episode/1260034 I really like the background in this part of Cold Sweat, particularly the beginning. It changes from panel to panel so seamlessly and even though the perspective is different in each one it's still easily read because the panel leads my eye. And I just love how the trees look, and the gradual transition to rainy weather

varethane

I love all of the dang backgrounds in Cold Sweat, it's so beautifully drawn and rendered

one comic with backgrounds that I find really outstanding is Tiger, Tiger. The delicacy of the compositiion and the intricate lines make the world feel really immersive! http://tigertigercomic.com/tiger-tiger/117 I'm sure if I dig I'd find even more examples but here's one I found two clicks in and it's just beautiful

ErinPtah (Leif & Thorn | BICP)

Just some general recs... Stand Still Stay Silent does amazing things with scenery. Natural cities, small towns, and post-apocalyptic ruins alike. Evocative limited palettes, lovely details. http://sssscomic.com/ Flaky Pastry will break out into really impressive scenery sometimes. http://flakypastry.runningwithpencils.com/ Kill 6 Billion Demons has ridiculously detailed hell-dimension environments. Sometimes whole cities with every weird little building. https://killsixbilliondemons.com/

varethane

oh SNAP second K6BD, its scenery is jaw-dropping in basically every single panel

€heshire777

Agreed

€heshire777

Here's a good example https://killsixbilliondemons.com/comic/wielder-of-names-3-45-to-3-46-mykos/(edited)

ShaRose49

Whoah, that background from KSBD looks like something from Alita Battle Angel Some of my favourite backgrounds in webcomics that I can remember are from Space Boy and Planet Ace, I’ll see if I can find any...

https://m.webtoons.com/en/drama/space-boy/ep-193/viewer?title_no=400&episode_no=202 here’s one, but it9s hard to find specifics since it’s such a long archive

[webcomixtape-blog]

Stand Still, Stay Silent

ACTION ADVENTURE/POST APOCALYPTIC/FANTASY/HORROR/SFW/ONGOING

Generally speaking, there are two ways that I take in webcomics. First, the ones I keep up on weekly, like K6BD, Erfworld, Zebra Girl, that sort of thing. Then there are the comics I leave for a while, maybe a few months, before reading in a batch, a little like waiting for a book to come out, I suppose, like Gunnerkrigg or SMBC. But there’s a third kind, the kind of comic I leave for a few months… And then re-read from the beginning, because I have no self-control and they’re just that good from the get-to.

Today, a day later than I had planned due to some sickness and other excuses, we’re looking at one of those.

Stand Still, Stay Silent by Minna Sundberg is one hell of a comic. It tells the story of a world some 90 years after our own was lost to a plague of rashes and coma that gradually turned into one of monsters and body horror. As far as anyone in the comic knows, only in the Nordic nations did humanity survive, thanks mostly to the cold of winter forcing the beasts, trolls, and giants into hiding long enough each year for some kind of defence to be mounted. Some people are immune to the illness, as high as 48% in some places, but even they would not have lasted long in the warmer, more open places to the south. Immunity to the sickness isn’t much help when your mutated, mad countrymen are clawing at the doors to devour you.

The world of SSSS (unfortunate shorthand, I know) is stunning, not just thanks to the amazing art Sundberg is somehow able to crank out multiple times a week. The five remaining nations of the ‘Known World’, Safe, prosperous Iceland, hardy Norway and Sweden, mauled Denmark, and mysterious Finland are all well realised and believably adapted to this new, dangerous world, both in their technology and societies. Most now follow old faiths, the Nordic gods that have given some people gifts of runic magic, or the yet older, more secretive spirits of Finland that watch over the strange forest folk. It’s an interesting mix of modernity and an ancient, mythological past that I’m a massive fan of. There’s something deeply satisfying about a Finnish mage casting his spirit guide into the world through the burst of an ally’s flamethrower in an act of familiar protection.

The actual plot of the comic follows an expedition into the forbidden, and forbidding ‘Silent World’ that lies beyond the relative safety of the remaining human settlements, an attempt to uncover secrets from the old world, and make some money on the side by selling off old books. The cast, an eclectic mix of weirdos and no-hopers brought in for their willingness to accept low wages over any real skill, are a fun bunch to follow. The standout is Lalli, a Finish scout and mage who quietly gets his job done while offering some cryptic assistance to the crew, and generally just being an interesting, if sometimes exasperating member of the core cast. Plus, his magic is great, and inability to speak anything but Finish helps present some of the fun stuff Sundberg does with language and culture across the Nordic nations. Some can speak their native tongues and be understood, other cannot. It’s a little difficult to follow in some moments, but you get used to it, and the helpful ‘This flag means they’re speaking this language’ note at the bottom of the page helps.

The trolls themselves are great. Real body horror showstoppers made from one or more humans mashed together into a hairless, skinless knot of red muscle and rashy tissue. Very unpleasant, and suitably threatening to make the apocalypse seen real and dangerous. Many act like mythological trolls, avoiding sunlight and lying in wait for unwary humans. Others are stranger, looking and acting more like alien, or fae things. Like the presence of magic, the trolls are not well understood by those in universe, or out of it, but the attempts by the survivors to keep others safe are beautifully rendered in government sponsored posters and initiatives put forward about once a chapter. It’s one of those comics where you’re holding out for the next dose of setting knowledge at least as much as the next bit of plot.

What really sets SSSS apart though, is the quality of the art. The comic is goddamn breathtaking, easily sitting in my top three. Sundberg’s style is striking and colourful, making excellent use of a high contrast and loose, flowing brush strokes to make everything look alive and in motion. Were it not for the bloody, slavering trolls and clear signs of death and decay, it would look almost Disney-esque, and I mean that as a compliment I’ll likely come back to when I get around to reviewing The Meek. It’s the art that has me re-reading this comic every time I sit down to catch up on a few months of updates. It’s just so good I can’t help but want to roam through the archives again, and enjoy it all over and over.

Stand Still, Stay Silent is one hell of a comic. Yes, it can be a little grim, a little depressing in places, but given the setting, that sort of tone is to be expected. It’s well worth the possible brush with ennui at seeing beautifully depicted ruins of our own world.

Also: Really cute cats. Like… So many of them. Wow.

-James