Mr. Lobe posted:

If benevolent dictators were a thing that actually existed and endured through generations, autocratic monarchy would probably have never been rendered obsolete by liberal democracy. I'm sure between propaganda and his legitimate merits, he is probably fairly popular.

Of course, autocratic monarchy would also have never been rendered obsolete if monarchs were superwizard kung fu demigods, either.

If there's anything I don't like about k6bd, it's that it's hard to imagine communism happening in a world with great man metaphysics

The Halogens posted:

Would this be the worst-smelling place we've seen so far after a few hours or do you think we've been shown a smellier location?

YaketySass posted:

It's sort of the Exalted problem where the metaphysics mean normal people don't and can't matter.

Mindblast posted:

Maybe this ending to the tournament is so standard that every seat has a folded umbrella underneath it.

Evil Mastermind posted:

"The front 50 rows will get wet."

cant cook creole bream posted:

Allison can toallty take that dude.

Joe Slowboat posted:

Solomon’s rule is so hilariously legalist that it makes the state of Qin look like Gay Space Automated Luxury Communism. His response to a woman sleeping with one of his officers involves executing the officer and sentencing her to at least a decade in a work camp.

Notably, Qin collapsed under its second ruler, and the rebellion is said to have started when a couple of mail carriers were late, and realized that since the punishment for late mail was execution and the punishment for rebellion was also execution.

I don’t think Solomon being a somewhat responsible and paternalistic ruler means he’s untouchable - it’s the absolute terror of his untouchable power as a killer that underwrites his sovereignty. So, if his divine violence gets turned aside and he gets scratched... I imagine that might make his empire a tad less stable.

PMush Perfect posted:

Hell, "give up my freedom for security" is a choice that some people might actually willingly make in this crazy hyperlethal kung-fu universe.

habeasdorkus posted:

The moment Swolemon moves against Mottom or Gramps and succeeds, down comes everyone else on him. Including Jagganoth. And both Mottom and Grampy Dragon have massive armies. You can kill a ring of mooks all you want, if there's enough bodies to throw at you (and they don't run away) then eventually you'll get overwhelmed.

I would be so mad if I were a competitor and lost to time/speed hax, though. Especially if I'd been following the tournament to know my foe and he'd never pulled this particular bullshit before.

Brain Candy posted:

I get how Gog could still fight Solomon because can he do this a literal billon times, but this looks like it would chump Mottom and Gramps. How are they still alive?

Incubus wants to fight this?

Tulip posted:

Flesnolk posted:

She couldn't even make it a couple rounds into the tournament, against normal (by KSBD standards) kung fu dudes, without fusing with Cio.

Joe Slowboat posted:

Solomon’s rule is so hilariously legalist that it makes the state of Qin look like Gay Space Automated Luxury Communism. His response to a woman sleeping with one of his officers involves executing the officer and sentencing her to at least a decade in a work camp.

Notably, Qin collapsed under its second ruler, and the rebellion is said to have started when a couple of mail carriers were late, and realized that since the punishment for late mail was execution and the punishment for rebellion was also execution.

Tulip posted:

Jagganoth is scaring the poo poo out of everybody else not because he's so personally strong - he was personally strong the whole time - but because his armies are getting massively better than everybody else's.

PMush Perfect posted:

I don’t understand this reference and I don’t know if I want to.

Joe Slowboat posted:

Solomon’s rule is so hilariously legalist that it makes the state of Qin look like Gay Space Automated Luxury Communism. His response to a woman sleeping with one of his officers involves executing the officer and sentencing her to at least a decade in a work camp.

PMush Perfect posted:

I don’t understand this reference and I don’t know if I want to.

Begemot posted:

Solomon David is not the same as that Solomon David.

It took me way too long to find that, but it's a good bit of lore, and I also found the one about Australia.. Someone really ought to go through all those asks and add that info the wiki or something.

Mazerunner posted:

is it terrible that I think, "oh well at least he placed the heaviest punishment on the man with power, and didn't just go 'hurr woman seductress bad"

quote:

Very true. I believe the well-known story was that Solomon offered to split the babe in two for fairness’ sake, and when the real mother began to cry, Solomon knew who was telling the truth.

In fact, I was recounted the true story of this incident by a traveling peddler. Solomon was very kind to both women and listened to their concerns, leaving them with the promise of the assignment of a high imperial clerk to their case. The clerk quickly determined in no time at all through the well-organized imperial intelligence service that one of the prostitutes had a liason with a minor but decorated officer of the third legion some time ago. Questioning the officer uncovered very quickly the true identity of the baby’s mother, who were notified and brought to one of the world courts at haste. It had scarcely been a day.

Since lying in the court is a serious offense, the false mother was sentenced and executed later that day. Since copulating with an acting officer is a serious offense, the true mother was sentenced to six months of hard labor, her child was taken as a ward of the state, and her lover, the officer in question, was discharged from the imperial military, had his citizenship revoked, and died of complications from syphilis a year later, or so I hear.

The true mother is doing better, I’ve heard she is a clerk now, and her education was paid for by the crown.

She will still never get her child back.

habeasdorkus posted:

The moment Swolemon moves against Mottom or Gramps and succeeds, down comes everyone else on him. Including Jagganoth. And both Mottom and Grampy Dragon have massive armies. You can kill a ring of mooks all you want, if there's enough bodies to throw at you (and they don't run away) then eventually you'll get overwhelmed.

I would be so mad if I were a competitor and lost to time/speed hax, though. Especially if I'd been following the tournament to know my foe and he'd never pulled this particular bullshit before.

Rigged Death Trap posted:

the likely winner simply because hes planning for and anticipating that to happen.

Bongo Bill posted:

The version of the story that I heard was that there was a sheriff who was transporting convicts to a labor camp, and one of them escaped. The penalty for losing a prisoner was death, so, figuring he had nothing to lose, he set all of his prisoners free and they all regrouped in the wilderness to start organizing an uprising. That sheriff would go on to become the first emperor of Han.

Joe Slowboat posted:

Notably, Qin collapsed under its second ruler, and the rebellion is said to have started when a couple of mail carriers were late, and realized that since the punishment for late mail was execution and the punishment for rebellion was also execution.

Joe Slowboat posted:

Incubus: So what you're saying is, I have a chance! (No Incubus that's not what we're saying) I HAVE A CHANCE!

Rigged Death Trap posted:

This is not a man in complete control of whatever hole he has himself in.
He's also managed to fool himself into thinking that this isnt the case.

Hypocrisy posted:

It's only a terrible decision if you don't think Allison can win.

Demiurge4 posted:

Maia is still unaccounted for and if she’s in the arena she’s allowed a strike.

Joe Slowboat posted:

This doesn't seem to say it was Jagganoth's idea, just that they're working together. We don't have any evidence it was the Red God's idea, and from Incubus' first scene with Allison in dreams where he seems to be considering how useful she might be, I would bet he was the first to see potential in her - maybe not to restart Universal War, but his entire deal is taking people and baiting them into getting hooked on Crystal Incubus.

Plus, just narratively, unless he explicitly says Jagganoth drew him into this plan, the way he was introduced and the way the story played out, he's clearly meant to be understood as independently scheming.

That he's dumb enough to scheme with the Red God is a character point about Incubus, and his terrible terrible decisions.

Joe Slowboat posted:

This doesn't seem to say it was Jagganoth's idea, just that they're working together. We don't have any evidence it was the Red God's idea, and from Incubus' first scene with Allison in dreams where he seems to be considering how useful she might be, I would bet he was the first to see potential in her - maybe not to restart Universal War, but his entire deal is taking people and baiting them into getting hooked on Crystal Incubus.

Plus, just narratively, unless he explicitly says Jagganoth drew him into this plan, the way he was introduced and the way the story played out, he's clearly meant to be understood as independently scheming.

That he's dumb enough to scheme with the Red God is a character point about Incubus, and his terrible terrible decisions.

Neddy Seagoon posted:

If anyone could claim that single drop of blood, it's actually probably her. Don't forget she's an Emissary of Jagganoth and spoiling for a shot of her own at Incubus.

Cryophage posted:

Cryophage posted: