Shokei Sareta Kenja wa Lich ni Tensei Shite Shinryaku Sensou wo Hajimaru - Vol. 2 Ch. 5.1 - 「The Chosen Path」

[Lord-Raine]

@Owyn He already explained his plan, and it's not that. He said that the practical benefits of having a Demon Lord are that it unites the world against them, but as soon as the Demon Lord is defeated, that peace immediately shatters, as happened to him and the hero when they were both immediately murdered by the very kings and nobles that sponsored them, who then in turn went back to fighting and squabbling and waging wars with each other.

He has claimed that the Demon Lord is therefore the only being in the world that is fundamentally "pro-peace," and the only way a peaceful world will ever exist is if a Demon Lord comes into being WHO DOES NOT LOSE, but instead conquers the whole world and rules it absolutely. And he has set himself the task of becoming that final and greatest Demon Lord who cannot be defeated, but instead reigns over the world forever, bringing about the truest form of peace that can exist.

That is why I'm really enjoying the characterization of this manga so much. There are plenty of "protagonist is the villain" stories, even "protagonist is the demon lord." Hell, as others have pointed out, this is remarkably similar to Overlord. However, unlike Ainz, who never wanted to rule the world, and just sort of stumbled into it, this protagonist ABSOLUTELY DOES, and that is EXPLICITLY THE POINT. This story has all the best elements of Overlord present in it, but it's also a really good revenge story, but also on top of that it has the traits of military or nation building manga, and a complex take on the morality of the situation that makes you sympathize with the protagonist even if you don't agree with him. It even takes place in a more traditional fantasy world, as opposed to a "gameified" one with skills and level ups and abilities. It's all pluses, as far as I'm concerned. I only wish the manga updated more frequently.

 

[WEISS]

@Lord-Raine I'm not sympathizing with skully ass hat here not even a bit.

This one fails in the same way Overlord does. The MC is far too powerful for the slaughter of rank and file soldiers to pass as something justifiable or required for achieving their goals. Someone with the power to directly kill a king would be far more feared than someone that kills a few thousand soldiers.

With the range of resources this guy has, there would be multiple alternatives to slowly gain influence in the world or even control multiple nations, but since he went right into vengeance mode disregarding the lives of people that had nothing to do with his death, then there goes my sympathy.

I've only seen this theme work well in Hakai no Miko, and it does because the MC is leading the oppressed in a revolt without any other resources left to him. That's when matters of morality can really shine since armed revolt was the only way for the MC to achieve his goals, but that also doesn't stop him from having to face the consequences of the slaughters he causes.

 

[Lord-Raine]

@WEISS Cool, I'm sorry this isn't the gritty war documentary you apparently assumed it would be. I would argue that perhaps looking for things like that in things that have these tags is setting yourself up for disappointment, but that's none of my business.

 

[mahtan]

@zuflis11
Before, or at least what he says is his motivation.

 

[sambucety]

@flannan WFT man?¡?¡?¡?, I am living in Argentina (the most socialist country in South America after Venezuela) and they are trying to control the news, religion and the internet, so shut up and don't write shit like North Korea is no longer like mordor, sure that's what they want to show. Socialism impoverishes people physically and psychologically
when people write without knowing. . .

 

[WEISS]

@Lord-Raine You got pretty close to portrait it as one mate. But don't worry, I rarely expect much from revenge stories with the edgy skeleton/necromancer in the cover.

I'm just replying because "a complex take on the morality of the situation" was a few degrees too much. This doesn't get close to that and the justifications for MC's actions crumble at the minimal scrutiny.

 

[flannan]

@sambucety - I live in Russia, and I am sick and tired of people pouring dirt on socialism. Anyway, my previous posts got moderated away, so let's finish discussion here.

 

[RanmaChaos]

Thanks for the chapter

 

[Thomaster]

@WEISS
If he just went and killed a king, it would likely just strengthen the people's resolve to fight. They'd be furious and killing a leader or king would just be considered cowardly and despicable.

 

[WEISS]

@Thomaster How could we tell really? The MC didn't made any research on the current political situation around the world and didn't even confirmed if the conflicts from the time he was killed are still a thing. We don't know if the populace loves their rulers, if there's someone amongst these rulers that's pushing for peace or even if the world was actually moving towards greater stability before he went and zombified a country.

Skull boy's plan isn't moved by logic, he just went a bit nuts after all the shit done to him and is now genocidal. Nothing that the Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch can't solve.

 

[IRIGAMAGORI]

bad skeleton, bad

 

[Rusfik]

Wow!

 

[Treyon]

@flannan hahaha, dude under what rock are you living? NK situation is getting worse by the year, they are suffering hunger and a few months ago they forbid people from having pets as they are a food source, from cat to dogs are being "Retrieved" By the government and used as food. in NK they are lucky if they can eat chicken once a month and meat is used for special occasions and even in those, each gets a few bites only. The brainwashing in NK is heavy and they believe a lot of fantasy stuff, like they have won the war a lot, that outside of NK is hell on earth where there is no food, no water, everyone dying, etc.
Learn a little before giving your opinion, you are embarrassing yourself.

 

[0DvGate]

Just by the MC's goals and ambitions alone he's already better than Ainz lol

 

[Bellymood]

It would be ironic if the aero reincarnated too lol just reborn as another girl and now she'd have to fight the sage who is the new demon king.

Then at the climax she suddenly remembers since I'm going to assume the gods of this world let her reincarnate but removed the memories of her being betrayed. And thus the demon king and queen reign forever.

 

[flannan]

@Treyon - please think about this - where are you getting information about North Korea from, and why do you think they're any more truthful?
Anyway, my point was, typical badly-ruled fantasy town is suffering so much, they'd wish they lived in North Korea. At least, in NK people eat animals, and not the other way around.

 

[Miros]

@flannan "please think about this - where are you getting information about North Korea from, and why do you think they're any more truthful?"

from people who literally risked their lives running away from there , come on dude you can't be that dense

 

[flannan]

@Miros - in my experience, stories of people who ran away from Soviet Union are quite different from stories of people who stayed there to the last. Hence my doubts.

 

[Yumi_Sakigami]

@0DvGate I though the same bro, very better! C:

 

[Xaxeth]

This is getting better and better each chapter, I love it.

@WEISS if you reread chapter 3.2, you can see glimpses of how shitty the kings of the nations are, openly accepting slavery and so on, the fact that the MC killed everyone in the royal capital and killing the army might've seemed cruel but if you think about it these were the best options, first he couldn't just go killing the king alone and leave everyone else, because first at that point he was very filled with hate for the royal kingdom as a whole , so much that he couldn't see in front of him so to speak, secondly as it was a battlefield he couldn't afford to go against a whole kingdom worth of soldiers and mages that are capable of using holy magic AND carefully picking the targets that he deem as not innocent WHILE being filled with all this hatred, and even if he did the miasma caused by this huge amount of undead gathered together would probably kill all the humans even if he didn't want to.

As for the army, like he said showing them absolute power by killing them all, leaving some to spread the word is the best, that way the human nations won't just send in more armies to their deaths that will cause trouble for the MC , and at the same time he will get some troops to start with, think about it, if he was really that blinded by evil he couldn't have let some of them go, since that way no one will really know how strong he is and keep sending more and more armies, which in the end will mean more undead soldiers for him right ? he doesn't want to cause unnecessary suffering.

From what we've seen, the world is very corrupted right now, and he just wants humanity to be united and the world to be like the hero envisioned, and for that to happen he needs to also take tough decisions, there's no way around that.