- Location
- USA
I continue to think that in K6BD's universe, not having a battle plan is a strength. Caring about winning or losing is bad, and punished by the narrative. Allison is navigating very carefully between two polls, and to touch either one, to lose the heart of the paradox, would be ruinous.
Plan A: If Allison tries as hard as possible, in a consequentialist manner, she is Incubus or Old Maya. She can gather power, gather allies, play the wheel's game as hard as possible. Just be the very best possible Demiurge.
Problems with plan A:
1: Jaggonath has never lost. Plan A is his plan, and he's better at it than you. His victory is, Thanos-style, overdetermined.
2: Metattron will reset the universe when the demiurge war ends.
3: As her friends asked her, plaintively, who will save them from her, if she wins? As she asked in the Jadis Rescue scene...what does she do to Jaggonath's followers? How does 'be a better Jaggonath' end the problem of Jaggonath.
Plan B: If Allison doesn't try, she is Meti or Gog-Ciel. Just bake bread or fuck imaginary lesbians till the world ends. Allison can step off of the Pain Machine at any time. Jadis was perhaps the most straightforward incarnation of this temptation, but it keeps on coming up.
Problems with plan B:
1: Even if you don't care about demiurge war / politics, it cares about you. The price of leaving power to the power hungry is they grind your face in the dust.
2: Allison's nature, call it compassion or whatever you like, doesn't actually allow her to be happy while she knows that evil is triumphing. The notion of pursuing hedonism is, itself, ahedonic for her.
Allison is trying to answer Maya's paradox. She has to win the fight without being the sort of person who cares about winning fights. She needs to triumph not, essentially, as a process but as a sort of a side effect of being a triumpher. The whole thing is really delicate and complicated.
My best guess at the 'path of mutilation', aside from just an aesthetic, is that she is paring herself away. When she beats Jaggonath there won't be enough left of her to rule the multiverse, or for the people to elect as emperor instead of the statesmen they ought to be ruled by. She intends a self sacrificing victory, because striving for that is what makes her happy now.
Note: I think this is her present thinking, I don't think this is where she will end up. I think Abaddon is planning another intervention style plot twist where her friends make it clear that this would not be acceptable.
Plan A: If Allison tries as hard as possible, in a consequentialist manner, she is Incubus or Old Maya. She can gather power, gather allies, play the wheel's game as hard as possible. Just be the very best possible Demiurge.
Problems with plan A:
1: Jaggonath has never lost. Plan A is his plan, and he's better at it than you. His victory is, Thanos-style, overdetermined.
2: Metattron will reset the universe when the demiurge war ends.
3: As her friends asked her, plaintively, who will save them from her, if she wins? As she asked in the Jadis Rescue scene...what does she do to Jaggonath's followers? How does 'be a better Jaggonath' end the problem of Jaggonath.
Plan B: If Allison doesn't try, she is Meti or Gog-Ciel. Just bake bread or fuck imaginary lesbians till the world ends. Allison can step off of the Pain Machine at any time. Jadis was perhaps the most straightforward incarnation of this temptation, but it keeps on coming up.
Problems with plan B:
1: Even if you don't care about demiurge war / politics, it cares about you. The price of leaving power to the power hungry is they grind your face in the dust.
2: Allison's nature, call it compassion or whatever you like, doesn't actually allow her to be happy while she knows that evil is triumphing. The notion of pursuing hedonism is, itself, ahedonic for her.
Allison is trying to answer Maya's paradox. She has to win the fight without being the sort of person who cares about winning fights. She needs to triumph not, essentially, as a process but as a sort of a side effect of being a triumpher. The whole thing is really delicate and complicated.
My best guess at the 'path of mutilation', aside from just an aesthetic, is that she is paring herself away. When she beats Jaggonath there won't be enough left of her to rule the multiverse, or for the people to elect as emperor instead of the statesmen they ought to be ruled by. She intends a self sacrificing victory, because striving for that is what makes her happy now.
Note: I think this is her present thinking, I don't think this is where she will end up. I think Abaddon is planning another intervention style plot twist where her friends make it clear that this would not be acceptable.
